Women and poorest students to be hit hardest by university tuition fee changes, warns Sutton Trust report

The study looks at government plans to alter how university tuition fee loans are repaid and concludes that women will suffer more than men because they will spend longer paying their loans back. It also warns that students from the poorest backgrounds could see their debts soar to more than £50,000 thanks to the replacement of maintenance grants with loans which must be paid back.

UCU said the findings strengthened the case for a proper review of university funding and particularly how the loans system would impact on different groups of graduates.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'This report is a timely example of how the government's reforms to university fees are going to hit the poorest the hardest. We need to be looking to find ways to encourage the brightest people into university, not putting up ever greater financial barriers.