STUDENT leaders in Bolton have reacted with dismay to news that tuition fees are to almost treble.

A higher education funding shake-up announced by Education Secretary Charles Clarke yesterday (Wednesday) means students will face increased tuition fees of up to £3,000 a year. The current up-front fees of £1,100 a year will be scrapped.

Around a third of students, though, will receive up to £1,000 a year in a limited return of maintenance grants for less well off students.

The fee changes which take effect in 2006 will mean all students pay more for their education - Mr Clarke suggested some could leave university with debts up to £21,000 - but now fees will not have to be paid until after graduation.

Chris MacLeod, President of Bolton Institute Students' Union, believes the decision will exacerbate the problem of student debt.

He said: "We are very upset by the increase in top-up fees and we have written to Charles Clarke expressing our disappointment at the changes.

"People are already looking at massive debts. I'm personally facing about £15,000 and this is going to increase debts rather than reduce them."

Mr MacLeod gave a lukewarm welcome to the limited return of grants, arguing that the Government was giving with one hand only to take with the other.

"That's one positive that's come out of this big negative'" he said. "But it's just a shame that at a time when they are introducing this measure to help less well off students they are cancelling it out by increasing fees."

The higher education shake-up will also have ramifications for Bolton Institute.

Among them is its call for a huge expansion in two-year vocational degrees to meet the target of putting half the nation's under-30s through higher education.

Institutions will be able to charge higher - or lower - fees for different courses, creating a 'market' in which students will choose their subject and university partly on the grounds of affordability.

They will also receive the money directly instead of it going to the treasury.

But principal Mollie Temple did not wish to discuss its implications until she had been able to digest the details.

She said: "We have not yet received a copy of the document and until we have - and have had time to consider its contents - we don't feel it's appropriate to comment."