Liverpool: balancing local need

• Undergraduates 16,610
• Postgraduates 5,840
• Proportion from low social classes 21%
• Hefce teaching income £51m
• Hefce research income £22m
• Income from Hefce 36%

Russell Group member Liverpool University might appear to be likely to gain from differential fees. But its vice-chancellor, Drummond Bone, said this might not be the case.

Just over a fifth of its undergraduates and postgraduates come from lower social classes.

Liverpool's plan to expand student numbers by about 10 per cent by 2010 is likely to involve widening its network of partner further education colleges. Professor Bone said this meant Liverpool would have to strike a delicate balance between responding to a new funding regime and maintaining a mission that reflected regional needs.