HUDDERSFIELD Labour MP Barry Sheerman has called for more Government cash to help run universities.

He spoke out after Oxford University revealed plans to cut the number of UK students it takes in favour of foreign students who will bring in more money.

The elite university charges overseas students nearly 10 times the tuition fees that British undergraduates have to pay each year.

Oxford aims to increase the percentage of overseas students it takes and introduce strategies to solve what it called chronic under-funding.

Mr Sheerman, the chairman of the Commons education select committee, stated that he was very concerned by the trend.

But he stressed that universities had few options left to plug funding gaps and called for more Government money for higher education.

"If we want universities to be fair to UK students then more Government money should be provided," he said.

"It is a serious situation."

Mr Sheerman said top institutions like Oxford and Cambridge lost millions of pounds last year when 10 new countries joined the European Union.

Under European agreements students from member nations are treated as equivalent to `home' students and universities cannot charge them higher fees. Mr Sheerman said the EU should provide compensation to universities for their losses.