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Professor David Green, the principal of University College, Worcester, says his institution will charge extra for some, but not all, courses, depending on their popularity. “We will charge for courses such as sports science, but in others we may charge less than the current fee,” he says. “For instance, we find it difficult to recruit students in geography, so we may try to attract them by discounting the fees.”An Independent survey last month showed that 34 of the 89 English universities were planning to charge the full £3,000 for all courses, with 12 saying they would charge for some courses. A few of those charging the full whack have also announced generous bursaries. The universities of Cambridge and Exeter and Imperial College, London have said they would offer bursaries of £4,000 a year to disadvantaged students. That is on top of the £2,700 being given to these students by the Government in the shape of a grant and fee waiver.

It is understood that other universities are also considering similar sums.The reason behind Exeter’s decision to offer a bursary of up to £4,000 is that it is known as a “green welly”, or socially elite, university. It attracts well-heeled young applicants from the Home Counties and does relatively badly on the access league table, having only 13 per cent of students from the lower socio-economic groups, compared with the benchmark of 19 per cent. So, regardless of top-up fees, it has been wanting to do something to widen the participation of poorer sections of the population, according to Professor Steve Smith, its vice-chancellor.Exeter is proposing to put £4.5m into widening participation, with the help of the income from top-up fees. One-third of that will go into trying to raise the aspirations of sixth-formers generally. The remaining £3m will go into bursaries for 1,400 disadvantaged students. “The key requirement for us is that we want to widen participation, so our number one aim is to get more working-class students into institutions like ours,” Smith says “With the Bill we can do it This isn’t spin talking. It will help us to do something that this institution needs to do.”Another sign of the developing market in higher education is last week’s news that Royal Holloway, part of the University of London, is to give students bursaries for Masters degrees.

It has announced that it will offer up to 150 alumni scholarships of up to £3,010 each once top-up fees are introduced in 2009. “We recognise the burden of debt that students will have at their time of graduation, and are therefore considering deferred scholarships to allow our most able students to take a one-year course to further their studies and employment prospects,” says Professor Stephen Hill, the college’s principal. “We believe it is important to address the problems that undergraduate debt will create for postgraduate education at the end of the decade.” The scholarships will go to students with a 2.1 degree or above.Royal Holloway is another university that has not yet decided on top-up fees for undergraduates, though it is seriously considering charging £3,000 for all courses. It is also thinking about scholarships to help disadvantaged students along the lines of those offered by Cambridge, Exeter and Imperial.