MINISTERS were warned last night they still face defeat over controversial moves to charge students up to £3,000 a year university top-up fees.

It came as Education Secretary Charles Clarke attempted to quell backbench rebels yesterday when he presented his long-awaited Higher Education Bill to MPs.

He announced more financial help for the poorest students, including fee discounts and bursaries for the 30 per cent of least well-off students.

But more than 100 Labour rebels said they would still be voting against the Bill despite the concessions.

Newcastle East and Wallsend MP Nick Brown, a leading critic of the top-up fee plans and Labour's former chief whip, said that the Bill would "price families of ordinary means - let alone the poorest - out of these courses."

Mr Clarke told the Commons that the £1,000 student grant he is reintroducing this year would rise to £1,500 for the poorest undergraduates from 2006, when the increased top-up fees would be introduced.

He pledged to write off outstanding loans after 25 years for low-paid graduates and promised to review the impact of variable fees after three years.

Universities will also be required to offer bursaries to poor students.

Mr Clarke promised that both Houses of Parliament would be entitled to vote on whether the cap should be lifted after 2011.

He told MPs: "This is a coherent package to be taken as a whole - or not at all. If not supported by this House, none of the benefits will arise. It is not a pick and mix menu." He later told Channel 4 News: "We won't lose the vote."

But Ian Gibson, chairman of the Commons Science and Technology Select Committee, said the number likely to revolt would still be "well over 100".

Many universities in the region refused to disclose whether they would be charging the full fees until they had scrutinised the Bill.

But Northumbria University vice-chancellor Kel Fidler said: "The best system would be for there to be no fees, but the Government sees their approach as the only one. Thus, far from universities being 'allowed' to charge top-up fees, they are actually being forced on us."

Professor Graham Henderson, vice-chancellor of Teesside University, said they still remained opposed in principle to variable tuition fees.

"We believe it is essential that any system which is introduced does not undermine any part of the university sector," he said.

"It is also very important that students and their families, particularly those from less well-off backgrounds, should not be placed under any greater financial hardship."