Part-time students, who account for nearly 42 per cent of the student population, are becoming an "underclass" in higher education - poorly funded and neglected by the Government, vice-chancellors have claimed.

Universities UK this week called on politicians forming the next government to rescue the situation by providing cash to meet the full cost of teaching part-timers and by offering these students more financial support.

Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show a 4.2 per cent rise in the number of first-year part-time students in 2003-04 to 406,550.

Overall, the increase contributed to a 2.6 per cent growth in the part-time student body across all years of study to 812,475, representing 41.7 per cent of higher education students.

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UUK pointed out that the latest figures continue a trend that has seen part-time student numbers grow by 75 per cent from 1994-95 to 2002-03.

Part-time students make up more than half the student body in 11 universities.

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Yet this trend has been virtually ignored in policy changes, most notably in the Higher Education Act, vice-chancellors say. Part-timers will continue to pay fees upfront and are not entitled to bursaries available to full-timers.

A UUK representative said: "Unless the Government takes action, the provision of part-time higher education will become less attractive to cash-strapped universities, just when we ought to be making the most of the strengths of this form of higher education."

Michael Driscoll, vice-chancellor of Middlesex University and chairman of Campaigning for Mainstream Universities, said: "This has been a major blind spot in government policy. For institutions that have a lot of part-time students, there is a question about whether many of their courses will continue to be sustainable."

David Vincent, pro vice-chancellor of the Open University, where all students are part time, said: "It remains a striking anomaly that the part-time section of the student body was excluded from the Higher Education Act."

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A spokesman for Thames Valley University, where part-timers account for two thirds of the student body, said: "Part-time students are already an underclass in terms of the level and the way they are funded and the financial support they receive."

Nearly half of all part-timers are on foundation degree, higher national diploma or certificate courses. Women comprise 62.4 per cent, up from 61.6 per cent the previous year.