Top universities 'given powers to recruit more students' It comes just 24 hours before the main deadline to apply to university this year through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). The Government has already radically slashed direct state funding for university teaching. In its place, universities have been given the power to impose student tuition fees of up to £9,000-a-year. In the letter, ministers said it would result in £8 billion worth of funding for teaching in 2012/13, rising to £9.1bn in 2014/15. The Government also wants to encourage more competition between universities and reward the most popular institutions. Last year, they were given powers to recruit unlimited numbers of students with two As and a B at A-level - benefiting around 80,000 school-leavers. Next autumn, number controls will be lifted for students with ABB, affecting an additional 35,000, it emerged. Places for all other students - around two-thirds of the total cohort - are subjected to number controls, with universities fined for over-recruiting. But the letter said that "over-recruitment of up to three per cent will no longer incur a financial penalty." "This should deter over-cautious behaviour in making offers and recruiting students," it said. But the University and College Union, which represents lecturers, suggested that Government reforms to higher education were already proving a turn-off for students. Figures published last month showed that applications had dropped by 23,000 so far this year, with students deterred by the rise in fees. Sally Hunt, UCU general secretary, said: "The move to allow universities to over recruit is an interesting one and presumably has been introduced after the failings of the government's recent reforms which left many universities with unfilled places." Liam Burns, president of the National Union of Students, said: "The introduction of £9,000 per year tuition fees, the imposition on an artificial market for students, cuts to central teaching grants and constant tinkering have left the entire higher education sector in turmoil. That the government is making more places available than they previously promised and are going some way to reintroduce leeway for universities that accidentally over-recruit is to be welcomed but this is rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic rather than fixing problems of government's own making.