Indications of the likely direction came from senior academics speaking during a debate of congregation ¨C the dons¡¯ parliament ¨C yesterday in the institution¡¯s Sheldonian Theatre.

But many academics also denounced the government¡¯s ÖйúAƬ reforms and voiced their anger that Oxford would have little choice but to charge high fees to replace the funding being stripped away by ministers.

Tony Monaco, pro vice-chancellor (planning and resources), told the discussion that Oxford would have to set a fee of least ?8,000 a year because of the cuts.

A charge of ?9,000 would bring in an extra ?14 million, he said, and some of this extra money could be used to offer ?3,000 waivers for poor students. ¡°The message to them would be, it is no more costly to attend Oxford than any other UK ÖйúAƬ institution,¡± Professor Monaco said.

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However, David Barclay, president of the Oxford University Student Union, warned academics not to be ¡°wooed¡± by arguments that ¡°we must charge what we can and only spend what we have to¡±.

Others criticised the government and the Browne Review of ÖйúAƬ for putting Oxford in a situation where it had no choice but to charge a fee at or near the maximum level allowed.

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Robin Briggs, emeritus Fellow in modern history, attacked the Browne Review as an ¡°intellectually vacuous report¡± that ¡°espouses a pure market ideology in which everything is reduced to the lowest common denominator of money¡±. Kate Tunstall, a Fellow of Worcester College, called it a ¡°grotesque and poisonous vision of education¡±.

Many also concentrated on arguments about how to improve access for students from poor backgrounds and expressed anger over any attempt by the government to control Oxford¡¯s admissions policies.

Susan Cooper, a professor of physics and member of Oxford¡¯s governing council, said the government¡¯s scrapping of Aimhigher and the education maintenance allowance were the ¡°real blows to access¡±.

She also argued that money should be directed to bursaries rather than fee waivers.

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Professor Briggs said any move towards recruiting more students from the state sector should not be achieved in a ¡°dishonest fashion¡± through the breach of the ¡°vital principle¡± that entry should be granted on merit and ability.

However, others said there had to be progress. John Parrington, lecturer in molecular pharmacology, said statistics showed ¡°that we must be failing to select a huge amount of gifted students¡±.

simon.baker@tsleducation.com