Campus View: 'I would end up with £21,000 debt ? and that's not something I'd opt for'

As second-year students of disaster management at Coventry University, Joe Barnes and Shaun Edgerley reckon they have already learnt enough theory to know a bad thing when they see it.

And both are convinced that – in common with the pestilence, plague and conflict they are training to deal with – student top-up fees of up to £3,000 a year are seriously bad news.

They both have student loans and qualify for a 30 to 50 per cent reduction in tuition fees, but under the new rules they would not be among the minority who would have their fees paid. They believe they would be deterred from higher education.

Shaun, 21, whose parents are teachers, had the pick of the country's universities with five A-level A grades. He said: "I was pushed towards Oxbridge at school but I wanted to do this course. My fear is that because it is so popular it will be one of the first to cost £3,000 per year.

"On top of the student loan I would end up with about £21,000 debt and that's not something I'm going to opt for aged 18."

Joe, 20, whose father is a businessman and whose mother is a social worker, rejected offers from Warwick and Southampton universities after gaining three As and a B grade at A-level. He said he was worried that targeting quotas of students from under-privileged families would be wasteful, with a high drop-out rate.

He also wondered whether the gap would widen between Coventry and its more prestigious neighbour Warwick University, giving it a stigma equivalent to the "bog-standard" comprehensive school.

Dr Mike Goldstein, the university's vice-chancellor, is one of the most vociferous critics of the White Paper. He fears the effects of extra fees on the 37 per cent of the student population that the Funding Council has identified as coming from semi-skilled, unskilled or manual working families. He said: "The Government is taking a huge gamble that the spectre of having to pay back substantial amounts of money is not as high as the deterrent of having to pay small amounts as you go. The universities, such as Warwick, that attract affluent students will do better."

Dr Goldstein, who retires next year, would not be drawn on which of his university's courses would have a premium rate and which might be given away for free. But his successor may find a solution by subsidising studies of less popular courses by charging £3,000 a year for vocational degrees in physiotherapy and occupational therapy, which are backed by the NHS, and automotive design run in conjunction with Jaguar.