TOP-UP fees will dramatically reduce the number of poor students pursuing elite courses, academics cautioned yesterday.

Catalyst, a left-leaning think-tank, said that the introduction of variable fees would scare working-class students away from high-cost, prestige courses such as law and medicine.

The fear of debt will encourage them to take shorter, job-related degrees and commute to the nearest university while living with their parents.

The group’s conclusions will dismay the Government, which is struggling to convince rebellious backbenchers that higher fees will energise — rather than polarise — the university sector.

Tony Blair insists that as fees of up to £3,000 a year will have to be paid back only once students have secured good jobs, they will not act as a deterrent.

Professor Clare Callender of South Bank University, a government adviser on student finance and an author of the research, claimed evidence showed that poorer students were already being deterred from going to university. Those who did attend were neglecting their studies by taking excessive amounts of paid work in term-time.

She said the variable fees charged by American institutions had widened the class gap between students, and showed that “university bursaries are a poor substitute for a transparent and uniform structure of universal student support”.

The report, Higher Education and Social Justice, concluded that under the Government’s proposals, students from lower-income families will face a “maintenance gap” of almost £2,000 a year between their income and their cost of living, despite increases in bursary funds and loans.

“There is clearly a substantial gap between the amount of support on offer to poorer students and the level that would really give them an equal chance of realising their academic potential,” it said.

“The restoration of a small grant and enhancement of bursaries will certainly help their position, but clearly fall some way short of what their situation demands.”

The report said variable fees could raise money but price disadvantaged students out of more prestigious insitutions.

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