Cheapest universities and colleges 'to take more students' The reforms have already been criticised by the Russell Group, which represents top research universities such as Oxford, Cambridge and University College London. Speaking as the policy was unveiled last year, Wendy Piatt, the group's director general, said student numbers were being "cut from institutions which have strong demand from well-qualified applicants and offer high quality teaching." "We simply do not believe that re-distributing those student places to institutions charging lower fees will drive up quality or improve student choice," she said. Currently, the Government controls how many students each university can recruit because of the cost of providing undergraduates with means-tested grants and upfront loans to cover tuition fees and living expenses. From 2012, English universities will be able to charge up to £9,000 in tuition fees - almost three times the current rate. But ministers are determined to drive down fees to minimise the student loans bill. In last year's higher education White Paper, the Government proposed creating a "margin" of around 20,000 places to reward the cheapest institutions with high quality courses. This would be created by stripping student numbers from each university on a pro-rata basis and awarding them to universities and colleges that charge less than £7,500. Today, the Higher Education Funding Council for England revealed which universities and colleges had been awarded places under the system. It emerged that 9,643 would be distributed to 35 universities and 10,354 to some 155 further education colleges. Anglia Ruskin in Cambridge was the biggest winner, with 569 places, followed by London Met with 564, Nottingham Trent with 558, Staffordshire with 549 and Birmingham City and Coventry with 411 each. The universities of Worcester, Huddersfield, Canterbury Christ Church, Gloucestershire, Southampton Solent, Hertfordshire, London South Bank and Derby received more than 300 extra places. Among colleges, Newham College of Further Education was the biggest recipient of "margin" places, successfully bidding for 294. This was followed by Newcastle College with 260, Norwich City College with 249, Cornwall College with 241, Kingston College with 223 and Mid-Kent College with 214. The Association of Colleges welcomed the announcement but insisted that the extra investment was off-set by swingeing cuts elsewhere. Nick Davy, AoC policy manager for higher education, said: "The quality of college bids... has led to an allocation of around 10,500 additional full time student numbers for the sector - an increase of 25 per cent on present numbers. However, this figure is brought down substantially by the practice of universities withdrawing indirect student numbers from the sector. It is believed as many as 2,300 places have been cut from Russell Group universities under the system. But most are expected to be made up under other Coalition reforms that allows institutions to recruit unlimited numbers of students who gain the best A-level results - at least two As and a B.