SADDLING students with even more debt is untenable, the University and College Union (UCU) warned today, after institutions called for higher fees and more public funding.

Universities UK (UUK) said government grants and fees have not kept pace with rising costs, causing budget deficits, and that students and the public should pay more to fund a financial “black hole” in England.

Tuition fees for home students in England have been capped at £9,250 since 2017 and the body representing 141 institutions has put forward proposals for increased fees, which it says are “focused on opportunity, growth and partnership.”

UUK president Professor Dame Sally Mapstone told BBC Radio 4: “We are alert to the fact, of course, that when you say fees should go up, people are alarmed at the consequences for students, which is why we also think that it’s very important that the support that students get in terms of maintenance loans and grants also be looked at.”

Polling by the UCU last month found that 81 per cent of young people are concerned about the cost of higher education.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said that while universities are in “dire need of investment, those with the deepest pockets, not students, should pay.”

She said: “Students already face up to 40 years of forced debt repayments and must not be saddled with even higher fees.

“Vice-chancellors lobbied tirelessly to create the market-led system that is now causing huge financial instability across the sector.

“It is shameful that they now ask students to pay more without reflecting on the disaster they have invited upon higher education.”

Ms Grady said that giving vice-chancellors more money without preconditions “would be handing arsonists yet more fuel for the fire.”

“Labour must stop allowing them to act like reckless CEOs,” she said.

“A publicly funded system, backed by a levy on graduate employers, could help end the feast-or-famine admissions free-for-all and distribute funding more evenly.

“This would help secure the future for our world-leading universities.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said it would “create a secure future for our world-leading universities as engines of growth and opportunity so they can deliver for students, local communities and the economy.”