The Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, also said a review of living costs around the country could lead to differential levels of student loan in different areas.

And he revealed that the access regulator - who will decide whether universities can charge higher fees - could be brought in without waiting for the necessary legislation.

Answering questions on a wide range of issues in a BBC News Interactive forum, Mr Clarke also said a replacement for the A-level system could be introduced as early as 2007.

Spending review

On fees, he was asked why he did not simply exempt poorer students from the full �3,000, rather than �1,100 of it plus a grant for another �1,000.

CHARLES CLARKE'S ANSWERS Discussing with universities refunding �3,000 fees for poorer students Review could lead to different student loans to reflect actual living costs People in private schools 'cannot buy university places' Impact of grammar schools on large numbers of children 'wrong' Replacement for A-levels in 'maybe four or five years' NUT conference 'a bear garden' Education budget 'never high enough' Watch the forum Read a transcript

Mr Clarke said: "We are considering that actually."

He said the money might be better spent on a "total refund".

"We are discussing that with universities, so we don't rule it out - but we think the grant is the way to go."

It was being reviewed sooner rather than later, in the next 18 months.

He said many universities realised that - as in the United States - they could do more to help by way of bursaries.

The president of the National Union of Students, Mandy Telford, said later: "The new policies are highly contradictory and the minister's comments today will have done little to convince students that the government is any closer to knowing what it wants for higher education than it was 15 months ago."

Living costs

A student in Oxford asked Mr Clarke whether the London weighting built in to the present student loan entitlement could be extended to the whole of the South East.

"I think she has a point," he said.

The loan had not been reviewed since 1998/99 and he had now ordered a review of costs across the whole country.

"It may well be necessary to reflect different living costs."

'Shadow' regulator

The government's new strategy for England's universities includes an "access regulator" to vet universities' plans to attract more students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Only if he or she is satisfied will they be allowed to charge higher tuition fees from 2006.

Mr Clarke was asked whether the new regulator would be able to start work in time.

He said the government might act sooner.

"We are considering having a sort of shadow regulator before the legislation is passed to establish it."

'Cannot buy a place'

He was tackled on Edinburgh University's decision to give extra weighting to applications from disadvantaged students, and on whether universities were being encouraged to discriminate against pupils from independent schools.

Mr Clarke said Edinburgh was "right to focus on how it can achieve the ambition of finding the students who really have got potential to deliver".

He said he didn't want to be "rude" to anyone who went to a private school - as he himself had done.

"But the fact is if anybody thinks they can buy a place into university simply by sending their child to a private school, they can't."

They could get a good education - and if they did that, and got the results, they would get a university place.

English Baccalaureate

Many questions dealt with A-levels, following last year's grading fiasco.

Mr Clarke said it was not possible to guarantee that nothing would go wrong this year but he was confident all would be well and had offered the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) any help it needed.

His second priority though was looking to the future - while being wary of changing the new A-level system too soon.

"Any new system that we brought in would need to be very well considered" - which is why he had asked former chief schools inspector Mike Tomlinson to report on the issue in a year or so.

"And then to be introduced on a basis of consensus across the education system about what ought to be done, maybe four or five years' time."

Grammar schools

The education secretary also challenged supporters of grammar schools to debate the issue of educational standards.

"It's not true that I want to get rid of all grammar schools," he said.

"The issue is about the impact of the system.

"In particular the impact on large numbers of children who don't get into grammar school and are essentially rebuffed by the 11-plus and told they're failures at that point, which I think is wrong."

He said that, on a scale of his priorities from one down to 10, grammar schools came "quite low - seven, eight".

He added: "I just think that grammar school supporters should be ready to debate - like everyone else in the country has to - what is the quality of education and what is really going on."