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Welsh universities have been told they cannot charge higher tuition fees next year unless they rewrite their plans to encourage more poor teenagers to take up places.
All 10 Welsh universities and four of the country's colleges want to charge annual fees of more than £4,000 by autumn 2012. But to do this, they had to submit plans to subsidise more low-income students. These plans had to be endorsed by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales. However, the quango has told the 14 institutions their plans were not ambitious enough, and that they must rewrite them if they are to charge higher fees.
The move will be closely watched by universities in England, where the same could happen. The National Union of Students called on ministers and England's equivalent to Hefcw, the Office for Fair Access, to copy Wales's example.
All 123 universities and university colleges in England and a further 17 further education colleges hope to charge more than £6,000 a year from 2012. To do so, they have had to submit targets to widen their pool of students beyond white, middle-class teenagers. Offa is considering the plans and in July will tell universities whether it has accepted them. The English government has recommended that universities spend £1,000 out of every £9,000 received in fees on support for students.
A Hefcw spokeswoman said it had written to the universities and colleges in Wales to say that the plans, in their current form, "do not meet the necessary requirements". She said the proposals lacked ambition in some cases, while in others the targets fell short of what was expected. Some universities did not include as much detail as the quango wanted.
"We expect to receive revised plans, taking account of the concerns we have raised with individual institutions, by, or very soon after, the end of June," she said.
The quango said it would not be commenting on each university's proposals before 11 July, when it will have made final decisions.
Leighton Andrews, education minister in the Welsh assembly, said he was pleased that Hefcw had been "thorough and robust".
He said: "Plans will only be agreed if institutions demonstrate that they are meeting certain requirements, which include equality of access to higher education and improving the student experience."
Welsh universities will be allowed to charge up to £9,000 tuition fees for students from England and Wales, if the universities resubmit their proposals on access and these are accepted. The Welsh assembly government will subsidise Welsh students up to £5,625 a year for their studies.
Aaron Porter, president of the National Union of Students, said Welsh vice-chancellors had been complacent in thinking their decision to almost treble tuition fees would be a "rubber-stamping exercise".
"Offa has not been able to get tough with universities in the past and ministers must not be content for universities to raise fees without improving student experience and widening access," he said. "If Offa cannot hold universities adequately to account then the rise in tuition fees must be halted until a fair and sustainable system of funding can be implemented."
But a spokesman for Higher Education Wales, which represents the country's universities, said there had been no expectation that institutions' plans would be rubber-stamped. "Universities have worked energetically with their student representatives to ensure that their plans meet the exacting criteria set out by the Welsh government and the funding council." He said the fee plans had set out "ambitious proposals" to widen access to higher education.
The lecturers' union said Hefcw's decision was worrying and confusing for English universities. Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, said: "This extra confusion for English universities just adds to the mess that is the government's failing university funding policy. Unless the government uses the imminent publication of the white paper to pause on its catastrophic reforms then it will be staff, students and the UK's international reputation that suffer the most."
A spokeswoman from Cardiff University said she was confident the university could provide Hefcw with the necessary information within the available timescale.
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