Raise tuition fees to ease pressure on English universities, says Peter Mandelson

Labour peer says costs should rise in line with inflation but that universities would still have tough choices'

• Peter Mandelson: Universities are in a hole

Peter Mandelson has said that tuition fees paid by students in England must rise to stave off the severe and worsening" financial pressures facing universities.

Mandelson, a Labour peer and a candidate to be Oxford University's next chancellor, said raising domestic undergraduate fees from 9,250 to 9,480 a year would provide stability before the government embarked on further reforms to higher education and student funding.