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By Graeme Paton, Education Editor

The Office for Fair Access suggested almost a quarter of higher education institutions in England could make last-minute cuts to annual fee levels for students starting courses in 2012.
 

The move comes after the Coalition announced incentives for universities that charge the lowest fees.
 

Ministers announced in a White Paper earlier this year that institutions charging £7,500 or less would be able to bid for a share of 20,000 funded student places.
 

More than a third of universities had already outlined plans to charge £9,000 a year for a degree – the maximum allowed under a radical shake-up of higher education.
 

The estimated average fee will be around £8,393, it was revealed.

But ministers are desperate to drive fees down to reduce the student loans bill amid fears that billions of pounds handed out to undergraduates will never be paid back.
 
Offa, which was established by Labour to regulate access to higher education, said on Thursday that 28 universities have now expressed an interest in submitting revised fee plans for 2012.
 
Eight have already made an application to do change their “access agreement” – a document setting out fee levels and the amount of money to be spent on means-tested bursaries for poor students.
 
The watchdog refused to reveal the names of the institutions, which will have until November 4 to submit revised agreements.
 
It comes despite the fact that applications to most universities opened more than a month ago.
 
The National Union of Students condemned the move.

Toni Pearce, NUS vice-president, said: "The Government's incoherent and unsustainable changes to higher education funding are continuing to wreak havoc on students and universities as ministers realise that they failed to do their sums properly.
 
"Students looking to assess and compare what support will be available to them will be facing weeks of uncertainty and many will find that vital bursaries have been replaced with tokenistic fee waivers."
 
Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, which represents lecturers, said: “The Government’s fees policy has been a messy disaster from the start.
 
"Originally we were told fees over £6,000 would be the exception rather than the norm. The government budgeted for an average fee of £7,500 when the actual figure was almost £8,400 and now it has moved the goalposts in a desperate attempt to drive down costs.
 
“Universities simply cannot do more for less and threatening universities with fewer places if they don’t drop their prices is likely to drive down quality and see successful courses that cost more to run close.”
 Telegraph