Birmingham's fee bonus

Birmingham University is set to award eligible students up to £9,300 each in a new scholarship scheme to combat tuition-fee fears.

The university will invest £14.8 million of its tuition fee income over five years to ensure that able students are not put off applying to Birmingham simply because of worries over costs.

The scheme's criteria will depend on means-testing (assessed by the local education authority), academic performance and domicile.

Dave Hall, Birmingham's academic registrar, said: "Students from the West Midlands tend to come from underrepresented groups and generally want to go to their local university."

He expects that a third of the awards will be given to students from outside the region.

* Meanwhile, the University of Central Lancashire is to give scholarships of up to £1,000 to 95 per cent of its students. The university announced this week that all students who come from homes where the principal breadwinner earns less than £60,000 a year will qualify.

It still plans to charge tuition fees of £3,000 a year but will set aside 55 per cent of the revenue for scholarships.

Most other universities plan to devote between 10 and 30 per cent of their fee income to scholarships and bursaries.