A report from the House of Commons Select Committee on Education is expected to recommend that students who decide either to stay on at school or attend a further education college should receive a "learning allowance" from the government.

This would replace the current system under which parents can claim child benefit for children up to the age of 19 if they are in full-time education and remain within the family home.

The report is also expected to call for a massive injection of public money into the further education system over the next four years, to reverse the cuts of recent years and fund a major increase in student numbers.

The MPs on the committee believe further education should benefit from 430,000 of the 500,000 new student places that Prime Minister Tony Blair has promised to create.

Tuition fees

Such a move could result in funds raised from the imposition of tuition fees on higher education students being diverted to the further education sector.

This would not go down well with university vice-chancellors, who have given broad support to the government on the issue of fees in the belief that their insititutions would benefit from the money raised.