A split appears to be developing between the government in London and the Welsh Assembly over university funding.

The Welsh Education Minister Jane Davidson has condemned proposals which could see some UK universities charge students top-up fees.

There is a funding gap and you can't fill that gap by a very blunt instrument like that

Professor Derec Llwyd Morgan

The UK Government has admitted it is considering charging additional fees at top universities - sometimes up to thousands of pounds - as a way of increasing university funding.

The Welsh Assembly Government has already introduced its own grant for students in Wales, arguing top-up fees would discourage students from middle-class and lower income backgrounds from going into higher education.

Top-up fees are on a list of ideas being considered by Westminster as a means of ensuring universities can raise the funds they need to ensure they can compete with the best institutions around the world.

But Ms Davidson said she would be lobbying UK Education Secretary Charles Clarke - the policy on university funding is not devolved to the Welsh Assembly - against adopting the idea.

She said: "What top-up fees do is they attack the symptom and not the cause.

Davidson: Opposed to top-up fees

"What we've got to do is make sure that absolutely everybody irrespective of income should be able to go to university.

"Everybody should have an incentive to go on to higher education."

Ms Davidson said she was prepared to look at a system of "graduate endowments" which allowed people to contribute after they had benefited from a university education.

Introducing top-up fees would not help with a current problem facing the further education sector in Wales - not enough people staying on after graduating to be post-graduate students.

"They are not becoming our professors for the future - if we don't have those for the future then we won't be able to maintain our position as world-class universities."

'Blunt instrument'

The assembly commissioned an independent report into student hardship which called for the abolition of up-front fees.

As a result, it introduced assembly learning grants - similar to the old maintenance grants - of up to �1,500 a year.

Professor Derec Llwyd Morgan, vice-Chancellor of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, said there was a funding crisis facing the sector but he and other university vice-chancellors are opposed to top-up fees.

"We're all against that for reasons of social justice, equity and fair play for all students.

"There is a funding gap and you can't fill that gap by a very blunt instrument like that.

"It's a very complicated affair, putting up top-up fees, they've done' it once and it's not the answer.