UNIVERSITIES will be forced to reveal all spending as low as £500 to persuade would-be students that their tuition fees are not being squandered.

A shake-up of higher education proposes that institutions be required to “provide the sort of material that local councils offer”, to demonstrate that council tax is wellspent.

Those rules require all spending decisions above £500 to be made public. A Government source said the figure for universities had not yet been set, but added: “We are talking about the same concept as affects councils.”

The data would be revealed as part of a course-by-course “key information set” – to give students paying annual fees of up to £9,000 a clearer choice of degree – that would include:

• The proportion of students in a full-time graduate job six months after completing their course – and their average salary;
• Time spent with academic staff in lectures and tutorials, plus assessment methods used;
• Accommodation costs, alongside bursaries and scholarships available;
• Online student surveys of the quality of lectures and courses, plus library and IT resources.

Aaron Porter, president of the National Union of Students, warned the proposals would fail to calm the anger of students who face a neartripling of fees from next year.

He said: “To use proposals for more information as a justification for lifting the cap on fees to £9,000 is outrageous and will not fool students and their families. It’s the price, rather than educational standards, that will have tripled.”

Unveiling the package in the Commons, Universities Minister David Willetts said it would put “students in the driving seat”, adding: “The more information the better.”

Pointing to the requirement to reveal job and salary prospects, Mr Willetts said: “This will give universities a much stronger incentive to ensure their graduates are, indeed, employable.”

The White Paper will also give students the power to trigger inspections if they have legitimate concerns about teaching standards.

Controversially, richer graduates will be allowed to pay back their loans early – with no mention of the penalty clauses demanded last year by the Liberal Democrats.

And the shake-up will force universities to fight for a quarter of available places, as part of plans to use market forces to drive up standards.

In 2012, 65,000 places will be created for applicants with grades of at least two As and a B at A-level – and a further 20,000 reserved for institutions that offer “good quality”

courses, for £7,500 or less.