The government's policy on student finance is today given a mixed appraisal by a committee of MPs.

The education and skills select committee endorses the existing tuition fees system but suggests the government should not close its mind to alternative models.

The cross-party committee rejects the Scottish and Welsh systems of student funding.

Forum Response: Universities UK

Roderick Floud, president of Universities UK, told ePolitix.com: "We welcome the recommendation that current systems of student support be simplified. But our submission to the review of student support went further, recommending mandatory grant support for the poorest students. This is vital if the financial barriers to access are to be removed."

Diana Warwick, chief executive of Universities UK, told ePolitix.com: "The committee has shown strong support for our view that any additional financial assistance for students must not be at the cost of investment in higher education institutions themselves. This is absolutely crucial if we are to ensure that all students have a first class experience when they get to university.

"In particular, the premium paid to universities to support students under the widening participation agenda must properly reflect the additional costs of recruiting and retaining such students. The report makes this point specifically."

Forum Response: Association of University Teachers

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the AUT, told ePolitix.com: "The opportunity to go to university must be based on a student's intellectual ability and not their ability to pay. This country's future prosperity rests on students emerging from university with the education they deserve and as low a debt burden as possible - otherwise they will not go.

"I also wholeheartedly welcome the report's insistence that nothing must detract from the need to increase investment in university staff and infrastructure."If the government fails to invest in higher education, students will be sold short and penniless."

Forum Response: NATFHE

Paul Mackney, general secretary of NATFHE, told ePolitix.com: "It is encouraging that the report recognises the need to provide maintenance support for FE students, who until now have been ignored. It also recognises that finances available to students should 'reflect the realistic cost of studying'. Sadly, this principle is used to advocate bigger loans - with their consequent bigger debts - instead of a realistic maintenance allowance to attract poorer students.

"The continuing prospect of inadequate loans and future debt will still deter many potential working class and ethnic minority students. These proposals won't attract sufficient non-traditional students into HE for the government to reach its targets for wider participation.

"It is disappointing that the committee failed to reject the idea of institutions charging differential tuition fees. This would lead to a two-tier system of HE and whilst some bursaries might accompany its implementation, high-fee institutions would still become 'universities for rich kids', scuppering efforts to attract more non-conventional students into HE.

"NATFHE supports the widening of access to HE but differential tuition fees are not the way to fund it. If the middle classes are going to end up paying more anyway, it is better done through the taxation system than through top-up fees. If the government really wants to widen participation it should bite the bullet and fund it through progressive taxation."