The North's Minister for Higher and Further Education, the SDLP's Dr Sean Farren, has announced his intention to conduct a review of financial support for third-level students, following the decision of the Scottish executive effectively to abolish student fees and introduce a method of deferred repayments.

The decision means that Scottish or EU students studying in Scotland do not have to pay fees, while a student from elsewhere in Britain or from Northern Ireland studying in Scotland must still pay fees.

"Clearly the Northern Ireland system is not the same as that in Scotland and it would be inappropriate for us simply to take from the shelf a set of recommendations made in another context," Farren said.

"Equally, however, we cannot take our decisions in isolation and I have today asked my officials to contact their counterparts in England, Scotland and Wales with a view to discussing the wider implications," he added. The Minister has stressed that one of his central aims is to widen access to higher education and said he would announce details of the review shortly.

Meanwhile, the Workers' Party accused Dr Farren of doing a "u-turn" on the issue of student fees. Marian Donnelly, the party's spokesperson on education, said the Minister had failed to implement the SDLP policy pledge to abolish student loans and introduce a grants system.

"Why are Mr Farren and the SDLP not standing by their policy position? Is it a case of saying one thing out of power and another thing in it?" she said.

"If Sean Farren does not use his office to scrap student tuition fees he and the SDLP will not only have betrayed thousands of Northern Ireland students, but told blatant lies to them," Donnelly added.