The OU's David Vincent says government needs a broad view

The plans for variable tuition fees from 2006 include a promise that no-one will have to pay until they have graduated and earn at least �15,000.

But part-time undergraduates will still have to pay up-front fees.

The Open University and the University of London's Birkbeck College say they will not be able to compete for cash.

If part-time fees were radically increased, this would make part-time higher education less accessible Master of Birkbeck, Professor David Latchman

"The recruitment of these students into higher education is crucial to the achievement of the government's widening participation target," they said in a joint statement.

"Part-time students account for 40% of the higher education sector in the UK.

"These students will be sidelined when the government introduces top-up fees for full-time undergraduate study in 2006."

Broader view

Unlike full-time fees, currently fixed, universities can set their own fees for part-timers.

The master of Birkbeck, Professor David Latchman, said: "It has been argued that the part-time sector can set its own up-front fees to secure the extra funding it so badly needs.

"However, this argument is invalid: If part-time fees were radically increased, this would make part-time higher education less accessible to those students for whom full-time study is not an option."

Professor David Vincent, pro vice-chancellor for strategy, planning and external affairs of the Open University, said: "There are no benefits to higher education in having an impoverished part-time sector.

"The government needs to take a broad view of the whole sector rather than concentrate on one element to the disadvantage of others."

Competition

They said there was a danger that part-time institutions would be unable to compete on equal terms with traditional universities.

"Top-up" fees would widen the gap between the relatively high level of resourcing already available for full-time undergraduates and the lower levels of funding for part-time students.

The government is providing some additional support for part-time students from this autumn.

The Higher Education Minister, Alan Johnson, said in a BBC News Online interactive forum that he would be reviewing the position.

"We'd like to do more for part-timers but we're looking to put money into universities and put more taxpayers' money into universities and obviously we can't do everything at once.

"But the help we're providing to part-timers should be seen as a significant step in that direction and certainly we intend to look at what we can do to help."