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The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service said this week it was mounting a damage limitation exercise after a national newspaper reported on Sunday that a formal warning was to be issued to students indicating that free university education was to end next year.

The article said students would be advised not to defer university places or waste a year improving grades because of the likelihood of fees coming in to force in 1997.

A spokesman for UCAS said no such warning would be issued to students.

Many calls had been received from anxious parents and students fearing that a decision to charge fees in 1997 had been taken and they were being reassured. "We just do not know if or when fees are to be introduced," said Jess Enderby of UCAS.