GORDON BROWN will come under pressure this week to back his opposition to top-up tuition fees for students with a big increase in university funding.

A final draft of the Government’s White Paper on higher education reform is circulating among senior ministers before an expected Cabinet decision next week.

Sources told The Times yesterday that agreement had been reached on most issues and that the White Paper represented the most radical rethink of any Labour education policy since Tony Blair came to power. But final decisions on paying for the changes would be worked out with the Chancellor this week, after the Prime Minister’s return from his holiday in Egypt.

One government source said: “We are almost there but this week is absolutely crucial for people to put their money where their mouths are. Everything has to be funded.

“The Prime Minister has said we won’t charge thousands of pounds up front. Access is one of the big drivers in this for us as well as getting more money into the sector.”

The document, which has already been delayed three times, is expected to be made public by the end of this month. The last-minute horsetrading came to light as backbench Labour MPs increased pressure on the Government not to introduce top-up fees. The MPs fear a backlash from voters who object to a sharp increase in student debt.

A total of 253 MPs, including 157 from Labour, have signed Commons motions opposing higher fees. Paul Farrelly, one Labour rebel, said that allowing elite universities to charge more than other institutions for degree courses would restrict choice and opportunity for many families.

The Chancellor has led the campaign against top-up fees within the Cabinet, arguing that they would deter students from poorer backgrounds. He has pressed instead for a form of graduate tax that would be related to the higher earnings of people with degrees. But Charles Clarke, the Education Secretary, says that a serious disadvantage of a graduate tax is that universities would have to wait 15 to 18 years before they received any substantial income.

Mr Clarke is thought to favour raising tuition fees, but with students given a choice of paying at the start of their courses, in return for a discount, or after graduation, with repayment linked to their income in work.

Any deferred payment scheme, however, would require Mr Brown to pledge extra financial support to satisfy Mr Blair’s demand for an immediate cash boost to ease a funding crisis in universities.

Mr Blair told the Commons last month that parents would not be asked to “pay upfront thousands of fees” in what was regarded as a retreat from his support for top-up charges.

The White Paper is expected to retain some form of parental means testing, despite Mr Clarke’s encouragement of a debate about treating students as adults and breaking the link with family income in decisions about tuition charges and maintenance loans.

Forty per cent of students now pay nothing towards their tuition because they come from families with annual incomes below £20,480. They can borrow up to £3,900 a year, or £4,800 in London, from the Student Loans Company to cover living expenses.

An equal proportion pay the full £1,100 annual tuition fee because their parents earn more than £30,502 a year. They qualify for only 75 per cent of the maximum maintenance loan, with parents expected to contribute the rest.

It is understood that ministers have accepted that scrapping means-testing completely in favour of a graduate contribution would be prohibitively expensive.

Universities UK, the body representing vice-chancellors, says that higher education needs an extra £9.94 billion over the next three years to end the funding shortage. Half of universities are in the red, and the sector is running at an annual loss for the first time.

Times Recommends

• Donor organ allowed child’s own heart to heal
• Michael Jackson: Not the final chapter
• Brüno toned down for 15 rating