Senior union leader Bill Morris has warned the government that "by pursuing policies like foundation hospitals, university top-up fees and describing decent trade unionists as wreckers and dinosaurs, Labour is creating a dangerous divide between the party and its natural supporters".

Forum Response: Universities UK

Diana Warwick, chief executive of Universities UK, said: "Differential fees are one of the options the government is considering. Opinion on the subject is clearly mixed, both within and outside the higher education sector and universities want to engage in this political debate to ensure that all the implications of any deregulation is examined in full.

"Questions must be asked, for example, to establish the extent to which and how differential fees can help the whole higher education sector, and what would be the impact on all students at all universities. It is also vital that the system does not deter talented students from going to university.

"Universities are concerned that there be an appropriate mix of public and private funding for higher education but we are also clear that income raised by tuition fees alone will not meet the needs of the sector as a whole.

"Substantial additional public funding is necessary to meet the £9.94 billion investment need Universities UK identified in its submission to the government's spending review last year."