"The government is monitoring the effects of funding changes on students from poorer backgrounds"

Baroness Blackstone said the dropout rate had improved slightly in the past two years, from 19% to 17%.

The National Union of Students believes several thousand students could be dropping out every year because of tuition fees.

But evidence given to MPs by the Higher Education Funding Council for England said most students dropped out for academic reasons.

Top-up fees

The Education Minister was also pressed on the idea that students might have to pay top-up fees to make up a shortfall in university funds.

Baroness Blackstone said: "There are no plans to introduce top-up fees. They are not part of the government's policy."

But her failure to rule out such a scheme angered the Liberal Demoncrats' spokesman on higher education, Evan Harris.

Dr Harris said: "The government used the same language before the last General Election about having no plans to introduce tuition fees and abolish maintenance grants. No wonder students and their parents are worried about more fees."

Single parents

The MPs also took the minister to task over support for part-time students and single mothers. She told them that universities should try to help those groups.

Baroness Blackstone said: "Universities have to try very hard to reach this kind of student, to increase their choices and lessen their dependence on the state."

MPs on the committee gave examples of promising students who had been unable to take up university places because of a lack of nursery provision.

Baroness Blackstone said: "It's very important that universities are supportive about work and family commitments."

She said institutions should provide training on this.