Ministers should consider raising the interest charged on student loans to a “real” rate tied to the government’s cost of borrowing, the main spokesman for British universities has told the Financial Times.

The suggestion by Steve Smith, president of Universities UK, the body representing executive heads of universities, is likely to anger many middle-class parents, who are disproportionately more likely to send their children to university. But he argued it might be “more socially equitable” than the present system.