NORTH-EAST universities have been accused of using “shallow marketing gimmicks” to attract new students, including handing over hundreds of pounds in cash.

Incentives are being promised to prospective students at institutions including Teesside and Sunderland universities, as higher education bosses wage a nationwide bidding war for bright students.

Cash rewards and annual travel passes are among the prizes on offer for those who pledge to take up a place at North-East universities.

Teesside University, which charges the maximum £9,000 a year tuition fee, will hand over £500 to any student who takes a place there as part of its new Teesside Kickstart scholarship.

The University of Sunderland’s Get There scholarship offers all new students a free Tyne and Wear travel pass, worth £213, or a discount on accommodation fees.

A spokesman from Teesside University said the incentives are meant “to support [students] in their first year” and are not means-tested unlike regular scholarships or bursaries.

Such incentives are common at universities across the country – the University of East London offers every new student a tablet computer, while the University of Bedfordshire will give its new starters £300 to spend on learning materials.

The incentives may be symptomatic of the government’s 2012 decision to increase the number of university places which resulted in institutions competing for students to fill places.

Megan Dunn, the National Union of Students’ (NUS) vice president of higher education criticised the incentive schemes.

She said: “It is unacceptable that in increasingly difficult financial times, universities are choosing to spend their money on shallow marketing gimmicks instead of investing it where it will make a real difference to those students who cannot afford university.”

But a spokesman for Teesside University defended the policy, saying: “Our students come from a diverse range of backgrounds and many are the first generation in their family to attend university, so our packages are designed to help students make the transition into higher education.”

A University of Sunderland spokesman said feedback from students and parents on the Get There scholarship is overwhelmingly positive, saying that the scholarship lifts the burden of travel costs for first year students completely.

The region’s other universities – Durham, Newcastle and Northumbria – do not offer any incentives other than regular scholarships and means-tested bursaries.