Rich students should pay the full cost of tuition fees to subsidise poor undergraduates, according to university access champion Peter Lampl.
Mr Lampl, director of the Sutton Trust, which funds initiatives to get poor students into university, said it was scandalous that people from wealthy backgrounds, many of whom had attended fee-paying schools, paid just a fraction of the true cost of their university education.
He told a fringe meeting at this week's Labour Party conference that the money saved by government if wealthy students paid full-cost fees ought to be recycled to pay for increased financial support for undergraduates from less well-off backgrounds.
Mr Lampl said: "The only difference between the wealthiest and the poorest members in society... is the £1,075 a year that the wealthiest have to pay towards tuition fees. I think that differential... is just outrageous. The whole system is rigged not just against a few disadvantaged kids but against the majority of kids in favour of the privileged few."