Student leaders have reacted angrily to reports that leading universities are considering "top-up" fees which would mean charges of thousands of pounds for degree courses.

Such charges, in addition to the existing student loans and tuition fees, would wreck the government's attempts to widen access to university, says the National Union of Students.

A study commissioned by a group of leading universities - called the Russell Group - has been reported to be proposing charges of up to �50,000 for a three-year degree course.

But the University of Nottingham, which is to publish the report on its website on Friday, has dismissed the figure as a misrepresentation of the report's contents.

But according to the National Union of Students, placing any extra financial burden on students would deter more young people from seeking places in the most prestigious universities.

And the union argues that the setting of different fees for different colleges, would mean that students would be making applications on the grounds of what they could afford, rather than what they could achieve.

"Such figures are bound to put off young people from applying to university. People considering applying would feel threatened by such a large debt and would see their opportunities closing," said a spokesman for the NUS.

Scholarships

The Russell Group report will examine ways in which universities can find the extra funding which they say they need to remain competitive with other leading academic institutions around the world.

Under the top-up fees proposal - otherwise known as "differential" or "flexible" fees - universities would set their own charges for courses.

And they would seek to protect places for less well off students by offering a larger number of scholarships and support packages - as happens in the United States.

This approach would seek to increase university funding while also advancing the cause of widening access to higher education.

But the National Union of Students says that such a plan will worsen problems of student debt and will block the path into university for young people from deprived backgrounds.

The NUS also claims that the prospect of such high charges has begun to divide members of the Russell Group, with some universities drawing away from supporting such a potentially divisive funding mechanism.

The report will be considered by Russell Group members over the summer, although without government approval they would be unable to implement such changes.

The government has so far maintained its opposition to top-up fees, with the Education Secretary David Blunkett saying that they would not be introduced while he remained in office.