A report by the CBI has recommended UK students pay more towards their higher education studies.

UK education may now only be accessible by the rich – a Confederation of British Industry (CBI) report has recommended that students should contribute more to their higher education (HE) costs and that tuition fee loans be charged at the government’s cost of borrowing.

In addition, the organisation has recommended the government scrap its target of 50% of 18-30 years olds taking part in HE in order to focus on “quality not quantity”, and that maintenance grants should revert back to 2006-7 income thresholds.

The President of the UK’s National Union of Students (NUS), Wes Streeting, hit back at the report: “At a time of economic crisis, when many hard working families are struggling to support their offspring through university, I am astonished that the CBI should be making such offensive recommendations.

“Students are already leaving university with record levels of debt, while graduate job prospects are at an all time low. Instead of recommending that students are fleeced even more than they already are, the CBI should start looking at how they might put something back into the system themselves.”

However, the CBI has defended the move by stating that an increase in tuition fees to £5,000, from 2012, would result in an income increase for England’s universities of £1.23 billion from 2014 – without creating a decline in student demand.

It has also stated that the change to tuition fees would save £1.4bn a year, while the change in maintenance grant thresholds would not affect the majority of people as numbers applying for such grants had not significantly increased since the threshold was raised.

Richard Lambert, CBI Director-General, said: “On funding, our Task Force considered – and rejected – three options open to the government: cutting research funding, slashing teaching budgets and reducing student numbers. Instead, we say that savings should come from the student support system.

“Of course, it’s never easy to ask students to pay more, but the UK’s student support is on a par with some of the most generous in the world, and the priority must be to preserve quality as well as assisting those unable to pay to ensure that higher education remains open to all.”

CBI Higher Education Task Force’s report, Stronger together – businesses and universities in turbulent times, also recommended that businesses play a bigger role in HE by sponsoring courses, offering internships and providing financial support to new graduates.

It also wants to see more students taking science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) courses in an effort to supply the business world with graduates skilled in these areas.