Tories drop pledge to scrap top-up fees

Party sources said the entire policy would be rethought after the next election, effectively acknowledging that it would create huge financial problems.

Although the Conservatives will vote against Tony Blair's controversial plan for top-up fees next month, senior shadow cabinet ministers have been saying for weeks that their stance was untenable in the long term.

The pledge to scrap fees was brought in by Iain Duncan Smith under the slogan "No fees, no small print."

It proved hugely popular among students and middleclass families, according to internal party polling, but came under fire from universitieswho demanded to know where else they would get money to fund improvements.

Although new leader Michael Howard said the party will oppose fees altogether at the next election, shadow education secretary Tim Yeo said a future Tory government would be " completely open-minded" about university funding for the long term.

"I want to make sure that we have policies which meet the very real requirements of universities," said Mr Yeo.

"I am in discussion with the universities. I believe these are major national assets and they need to be cherished and developed and I am completely open-minded about how best that can be done."

He refused several times during a BBC interview to give a commitment that the pledge to scrap fees would be kept after the next election.

The policy caused tensions because it would leave little room for a future Tory chancellor to make tax cuts. And it led to Labour charges that the Conservatives would deny university places to tens of thousands of future students.

Tory officials denied that they were carrying out a Uturn but admitted they were looking at the long-term implications of the policy.

Mr Yeo is also keen to reassure top universities that their worries are being heeded.

He recently met the vicechancellors of Oxford and Cambridge after former Tory chairman Chris Patten, Chancellor of Oxford University, dismissed the fees pledge as not "practically or strategically wise".

The move comes just days before the Government is due to publish a bill which would put into effect its plans to reform higher education funding.

The bill would allow universities to charge tuition fees of up to £3,000 a year, nearly three times the present level, but would scrap up-front fees. Instead students would pay after graduating once their income rose over a threshold.

But the plan has aroused bitter opposition among Labour backbenchers with more than 170 threatening to vote against the proposals.