TUITION fees are in tune with Labour’s core mission and values, Tony Blair said yesterday in the most robust and detailed defence of his university reform plans.

A ban on variable fees would be unfair to students who had to pay more for courses that could otherwise be discounted, he told an invited audience in London.

Mr Blair vowed that he had no intention of following the American example of “escalating fees to attend certain universities”.

He also admitted that his Government had been wrong to scrap student grants six years ago against the advice of Sir Ron Dearing, who carried out a funding review.

Mr Blair said: “This is our defining mission in politics . . . Our higher education proposals mark a radical extension of opportunity. They are probably the most progressive university reforms ever presented to Parliament.

“The choice facing Parliament when it votes on them is precisely this: whether to support Labour in extending opportunity, or back the Tories in rationing opportunity.”

Mr Blair said that universities faced growing competition from those in the United States and emerging powers such as China, India, Taiwan and South Korea. “We simply cannot duck the funding issue,” Mr Blair said. “There is no Plan B. There is no pain-free option of extending opportunity and building a quality higher education system for the many — not just the few — without someone paying for it. By far the fairest way of paying for it is, I believe, the one we are putting forward.”

He added: “With each day that passes I am more confident we can win this argument and more convinced that it is essential for our country’s future that we do win it.”

But he admitted: “We have accepted the case for reversing our decision in 1998 . . . to withdraw the maintenance grant entirely for poorer students, which we did against the advice of Ron Dearing.”

A flat-rate fee of, say £2,500 for all courses, would be a “straitjacket” and was deeply inequitable Mr Blair said.

“This goes to the heart of the wider debate on public service reform . . . (Under flat-rate fees) a lot of students will be forced to pay more. It is a classic case of uniformity being put above fairness.” He concluded: “It is hard to think of a package more in tune with Labour values of equity, inclusion and high-quality public services open to all.”

Ivor Crewe, Vice-Chancellor of Essex University and head of Universities UK, said: “Mr Blair made the case in a very clear way. Probably no Prime Minister has devoted as long a speech to higher education for a long time.”

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