Universities have called on the government for a multi-billion pound investment in the sector, despite the expected imposition of higher tuition fees.

Institutions from England and Northern Ireland have put their bid for £8.794 billion for the three years to 2008 into the government's Comprehensive Spending Review on Thursday.

Of that, vice chancellors argue that £3.754 billion will make up a shortfall in investment in infrastructure such as lecture halls and laboratories.

The request came despite the plans contained within the Higher Education Bill to allow universities to charge students up to £3,000 per year in tuition fees from 2006.

Funding gap

Universities UK said the income from top-up fees would not on its own be enough to rectify under-investment.

"Universities UK supports the government's proposals for a graduate contribution scheme but we have never claimed it will meet our funding gap - no single source of income will do that," said the organisation's chief executive, Baroness Warwick.

"Closing that gap and putting our universities on a sound financial footing can only be achieved by a combination of all the available sources of funding - whether from the public purse, from business, from developing endowments or from tuition fees."