Ministers made a U-turn after universities had privately sounded warnings of chaos in the admissions system next year as students attempted to pre-empt the increase in fees to £3,000 a year in 2006.
With a general election expected next spring, Labour MPs were horrified at the prospect of having to defend the fees to parents whose children faced record competition to get into top universities. Alan Johnson, the Higher Education Minister, told the Commons yesterday that the Government was amending the Higher Education Bill to protect students opting for a gap year in 2005. They would pay the existing £1,125-a-year fee, capped for the duration of their studies.
The concession is doubly beneficial. Because the Bill abolishes universities' right to charge upfront fees, students will start paying only after they graduate and start work.
It will save students up to £6,000 and allows youngsters to press ahead with plans for a gap year in 2005. Those leaving school in 2006 will have to pay the full fees regardless of whether they take a gap year.
A spokeswoman for Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors and principals, said: "It will stop the bunching of applications."
Admissions tutors had feared a surge of applications for 2005 to avoid the increase. Many had said that A-level offers would have to rise in response, making it harder for students to win places at the best universities and on the most popular courses.
Backbench Labour MPs, deeply uncomfortable about defending the fees increase, would have been even more vulnerable to attack from Conservatives pledging to scrap the charges.
Around 29,000 students each year defer university entry to travel or work to raise money for when they begin their courses. Students who had resigned themselves to not having a gap year may now change their minds in light of the concession.
The decision avoids a repeat of the debacle that surrounded the introduction of fees in 1997, when up to 40,000 students faced being left without places because of candidates abandoning their year off.
David Blunkett, then the Education Secretary, agreed to exempt all sixth-formers planning a year out just one day before the A-level results were released.
This time his successor, Charles Clarke, has accepted the case for a gap-year opt-out well in advance. A spokesman for Mr Clarke said that the concession was reasonable and affordable.
The spokesman added: "We originally said that we would give universities the freedom to decide what they wanted to do over gap-year students but the universities backed the amendment. It has no public spending implications and we decided it was not worth an argument."
The Bill squeaked through the Commons on its second reading by five votes in January after a revolt of Labour backbenchers and has been amended during its passage through the Lords. It is expected to return to the Lords on July 1 for final approval.
Thousands of A-level students will take examinations today that some may have seen. Four papers in chemistry and mathematics have been stolen from Edexcel, one of the three main examining boards, it was confirmed yesterday. The board said that it was too late to change the questions. About 8,000 students will sit the papers, three in chemistry and one in mathematics, only one of which, scheduled for next Tuesday, will be "substantially" changed. The theft came to light after two questions from a pure mathematics paper were posted on the internet.
