A GOVERNMENT plan to allow universities to charge students top-up tuition fees has split Bolton's MPs.

Bolton West's Ruth Kelly believes that the proposal will give more students the chance to go into higher education, but the town's other two MPs are less keen.

Brian Iddon -- Bolton South East's MP -- is against the plan, while Bolton North East's David Crausby said he was not convinced by the idea of top-up fees and would rather see a graduate tax introduced.

Mr Crausby spoke out as a dozen other Labour MPs have written an open letter to The Guardian urging Prime Minister Tony Blair to abandon the top-up fees plan, which was announced by Education Secretary Charles Clarke last week.

If the plan was approved, it would allow universities to charge students top-up fees of up to £3,000 a year from 2006.

Payment would be deferred until after graduation, but many students could leave university with debts of more than £20,000.

Mr Crausby said: "I am not convinced we have found the right formula to encourage more people to go to university."

The MP is concerned that students from poorer families will be discouraged from going into higher education.

Dr Iddon feared that top universities such as Oxford and Cambridge would be allowed to charge more to reflect their elite status -- discouraging children from poorer backgrounds. He said: "I am against top-up fees.

"This would result in different fees for different universities and different fees for different courses. Admittedly, the fees will not have to be paid up front, but nevertheless they will have to be paid back -- and children from poorer backgrounds will be put off going to Oxford or other universities that charge higher fees."

But Ms Kelly said the proposal would allow students from poorer backgrounds to go to university by abolishing 'up front' fees and re-introducing grants of up to £1,000.

She said: "These proposals get rid of the 'up front' payment of tuition fees, and students will only make a contribution towards the cost of their own higher education once they are earning a good salary."