However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the nation is being softened up for top-up fees.
ECONOMIST: The battle-lines over university fees have been drawn
They worry that introducing top-up fees would scare off potential students from poor families.
ECONOMIST: The battle-lines over university fees have been drawn
The big players, on the other hand, are looking beyond dial-up fees for their money.
The Conservatives say such top-up fees will act as a "severe deterrent" to poorer students.
Top-up fees would "institutionalise" barriers to less well off applicants, the students union claimed.
"The university opposes both the philosophy and practical consequences of top-up fees, " the joint statement added.
He has backed an American model of funding, including the slow introduction of top-up fees.
He also is, like you, in principle anti-top up fees, according to the Independent today.
And I certainly think that's a very serious problem about the top up fees approach.
That is foolish. although top-up fees might deter poorer students if applied universally, they could be means-tested.
The arrival of top-up fees would end the principle of equal access to higher education, says the union.
He said it was "disingenuous" to suggest that, once introduced, top-up fees would stop at any ceiling for long.
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However, Labour has also discouraged competition between further-education colleges and taken powers to stop universities from charging top-up fees.
It is thought the decision not to introduce higher top-up fees for Welsh students in Wales may be a factor.
Top-up fees have been rejected by the government but are still being discussed by the Russell Group of top universities.
Top-up fees, currently being considered by a group of leading universities, would mean universities setting their own charges for courses.
Mr Johnson, once a canny trade-union leader, was minister for higher education two years ago when Parliament approved top-up fees.
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Last month, students from across Wales protested at Cardiff Bay, urging the assembly government to rule out top-up fees for good.
In 2004, support from Scottish and Welsh MPs allowed the government to push through the introduction of university top-up fees in England.
These conflicting loyalties can drive up fees and cause other customer-unfriendly policies.
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David Davies (Conservative, Monmouth) asked whether the first minister had given any thought to what would happen when top-up fees are introduced.
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The government has consistently opposed the use of top-up fees, with the Education Secretary David Blunkett re-iterating his own opposition last week.
In one respect, the row over top-up fees has also been over-blown.
But Conservative former higher education minister Robert Jackson, who supports top-up fees, said his party's policy was "irresponsible" and would make universities suffer.
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Our finding that, on average, the full fee cost was passed into debt means that the same cannot be ruled out for top-up fees.
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Charles Clarke's predecessor Estelle Morris, who resigned last week, is said to have come under sustained pressure from Downing Street to allow top-up fees.
The students' union at Oxford University has expressed its "outrage" at the proposals and has called on the university to speak out against top-up fees.
Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy briefly unsettled by asking why he was breaking an election manifesto promise not to introduce top up fees for students.
In its last manifesto, Labour promised not to introduce top-up fees.
ECONOMIST: The battle-lines over university fees have been drawn
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