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• Undergraduates 4,220
• Postgraduates 930
• Students from low social classes %
• Hefce teaching income £5.5m
• Hefce research income £173,000
• Income from Hefce 47%

King Alfred’s College in Winchester has a profile that it believes already meets many of the government’s targets - yet its principal’s fear is that a new funding regime may force it to change.

In the last research assessment exercise it was the third most improved institution in the country after five years of investment in research.

Principal Paul Light said that if he was forced to abandon research, his college’s reputation for excellence in teaching - backed up by recent quality inspections - would also suffer.

He said the freedom to set higher fees could compromise the institution’s efforts to widen participation. “We could not sustain a position where there was differentiation of fees, and we were right at the bottom of the heap. It would mean we would have to charge higher fees ourselves,” he added.