Undergraduate students will be spared a rise in tuition fees for at least five years, in a move that will relieve middle-class families.

Ministers are under pressure from universities to raise the inflation-linked cap on university tuition fees, currently at £3,145, when the system is reviewed next year. Vice-chancellors claim that they need the extra income to compete with leading universities around the world.

David Eastwood, chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), urged universities to dampen their expectations. Speaking at the council’s annual general meeting in London, he said: “Institutions would be foolish to plan on the assumption that there will be an early rise in the fee cap. I think it’s inconceivable that the cap will rise significantly before 2013.”

The National Union of Students estimates that those graduating under the new fee regime will owe an average of £20,000 once they complete their studies.

However, a survey for NatWest bank has calculated that the actual cost of completing a degree is much higher, at about £33,500. This includes fees, rent, food and luxuries such as alcohol and cigarettes.

Students from families whose parents earn just over the upper limit of £60,000 for receiving financial aid may find themselves hit hardest by any increase in fees, because they do not qualify for the assistance that is available to those from low-income households.

Eric Thomas, Vice-Chancellor of Bristol University, said that it would be unrealistic for universities to expect an increase in fee or other income in the current economic climate. “We must expect our income to flatten. In the past 12 years, income has risen by 10 per cent a year annually. Now we will have a situation where it will flatten, but we will still have the same cost base,” he said.

On other hand Jane from Cambridge commented as “I think its a disgrace the fees exist in the first place; particularly given that the people who brought this in, had a free university education!”

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