An education chief warns that UK students will struggle to go to university in the future under the current funding model.
It comes as British universities incurred an annual £1 billion loss in teaching domestic students last year.
Dame Sally Mapstone, who was recently made president of Universities UK (UUK), which represents 140 institutions, says 'high quality' degrees are necessary for young people to thrive.
In her inaugural speech, Dame Sally will say universities need 'increased public investment' to allow Britain's homegrown students to access higher education across the country.
She will warn: 'This situation must not persist. It threatens the opportunity for future students to have access to properly resourced and high-quality higher education simply due to when they were born.
'And it threatens to diminish the UK's ability to deliver world-leading research and innovation to drive our knowledge-intensive and globally competitive economy.'
The Government raised the cap on university tuition fees in England to £9,000 a year in 2012 and it has been fixed at £9,250 since 2017.
