As students face £3,000-a-year top-up fees from this autumn, teenagers said that the high costs of living and univer-sity fees were “the main barriers” to studying for a degree. Only weeks after Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary and architect of top-up fees, claimed that the cost of fees would be no more than “the price of a pint” to graduates, school leavers disagree.

In a national study commissioned by the Universities Marketing Forum, 48 per cent of teenagers considering going to university said that they were “very likely” or “quite likely” not to go because they could not afford the cost of living.

Of the 2,225 sixth-formers questioned, nearly half (47 per cent) said that an inability to afford the fees was very or quite likely to put them off pursuing a degree.

In February universities revealed that applications had dropped for the first time in six years as young people rejected studying for a degree in favour of a getting job. Tony Blair hopes that half of young people will be in higher education by 2010, yet in spite of knowing that in their lifetime graduates can earn up to £150,000 more than non-graduates, the study shows that young people are anxious about incurring debts.

The National Union of Students is calling for a review of top-up fees, which will be payable only after a graduate is earning £15,000, because it believes that they discourage the poorest. The Illuminas poll indicates that sixth-formers are also less likely to leave home, in a further attempt to cut down on expenses. By staying at home students could save as much as £18,000 in living expenses over three years.

Universities are spending £300 million on bursaries to help with student living expenses, but Government officials calculate that students will be paying off debts of around £15,000 until their mid-thirties. Banks, however, estimate that the real figure could be double that by as early as 2009. The Department for Education and Skills insisted yesterday that, after reintroducing grants, investing millions in widening participation and opening an office of fair access, higher education was more accessible.

“We have ended up-front fees and reintroduced grants for students from poorer backgrounds, while universities are offering generous bursaries for students from lower-income households,” an official said.

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