FORMER Cabinet minister Alan Milburn faced a grilling over tuition fees yesterday from students in his constituency.

Pupils at the Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, in Darlington, prepared topical questions on the Higher Education Bill - dealing with top-up fees - which is due for its third and final reading in Parliament next week.

Mr Milburn fielded questions from students who could be among the first to face the fees.

He argued Labour's case for the fees, saying Britain could no longer hope to compete with China and Taiwan in the manufacturing stakes with the introduction of the minimum wage.

Instead, he said the country's economy of the future would rely on workers educated to degree level and claimed introducing top-up fees would widen access to higher education.

He said the majority of complaints he got from parents about tuition fees were to do with having to find money up-front to pay for higher education, but said that under the new system students would not have to pay fees until they were earning more than £15,000.

But students at the college remained unconvinced about the value of top-up fees.

Amy Thomas, 16, of Darlington, said: "I thought he handled the questions well but I don't think he is ever going to convince our age group. I wanted to take a gap year but that means I will be the first year to face these fees."

Tom Stuart, 18, from Darlington, who had challenged Mr Milburn about devaluing the worth of degrees by widening access to higher education, said: "I disagreed with his stance. I don't feel he represents my views as my MP, but I suppose you can't represent everyone."

* Students from all over the North will descend on Durham's Palace Green tomorrow for a protest against top-up fees.