An extra 20,000 university places will be made available for this autumn in a bid to cope with a surge in demand, the Chancellor announced today.

The places, which will be mainly for students studying science, technology, engineering and maths subjects, will be paid for out of a one-off £270 million University Modernisation Fund.

It comes following fears that hundreds of thousands of would-be students could miss out on places this autumn, as universities face a record rise in applications.

The Government had imposed a cap on extra places for UK and EU students studying at English universities, and last month funding chiefs confirmed that there would be 6,000 fewer places available this year than last year.

In his Budget speech today, Alistair Darling said the extra places would “allow us to strengthen our offer to our young people and ease parents’ concern that their child’s first taste of life after school or college will be a prolonged spell in the dole queue.

“We have seen in past recessions what a waste of potential this was and the long-term damage it caused.”

He insisted that universities must make “efficiency savings” and focus their funds on “quality teaching and research.”

The Chancellor said: “We are determined to achieve this without damaging key skills and our economic strengths.

“To help them do this, we are going to provide extra one-off funding of £270m in 2010-11, through a University Modernisation Fund.

“This will enable them to create 20,000 more university places, largely in key subjects like science, technology, engineering and maths, starting in September this year.”

According to Ucas figures published last month, some 570,556 people applied for university by January 22, the first cut-off point for applications, up from 464,167 at the same point last year.

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