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Controversial plans for university top-up fees have run into trouble on the first day of detailed Lords scrutiny.
The House of Lords inflicted three defeats during the report stage debate of the Higher Education Bill. Ministers want English universities to be able to charge students up to £3,000 a year for courses from 2006. Peers voted to defer the fees for those on gap years in 2005, to limit them to the first three years of a degree, and said state funding should not be cut. All the extra top-up fee money should be on top of normal state funding, and should not be used to reduce current cash streams, they said. Education Minister Baroness Ashton said the proposal would tie the government's hands indefinitely and give higher education protection not on offer to other priority areas.
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