PASSAGE FOUR (1)The near-trebling of university tuition fees has deterred working-class boys from studying for degrees, but had the opposite effect on working-class girls, an analysis has found. (2)The Independent Commission on Fees-a panel of high-profile figures from business, academia, journalism and the charity sector-looked at the socio-economic backgrounds of hundreds of thousands of 18---and 19-year-olds who took up university places last September, then compared them with those who began in September 2010. (3)They found the proportion of men from deprived backgrounds who accepted places on degree courses fell by 1. 4% between 2010 and 2012. Meanwhile, the proportion of women from the same backgrounds who accepted places rose by 0. 9% in the same period. (4)They conclude that the rise in tuition fees last September-from €3, 290 to up to €9, 000 a year---is putting off significantly more men than women and creating a "worrying gender gap". (5)The Commission defined applicants as coming from a deprived background if they came from an area that was among the 40%most under-privileged in England. (6)The most recent statistics show the majority-55%-of the undergraduate population at UK universities is female, a trend that has been growing over the past few years. Women are now a third more likely to enter higher education than men. (7)Will Hutton, chair of the Independent Commission on Fees and the principal of Hertford College, Oxford University, said the"danger was that higher fees may be having a disproportionate impact on men, who are already under-represented at university". He urged the government, universities and schools to consider how to address the problem. (8)The Commission is concerned that the gender gap could grow and said it would be monitoring this. (9)In January this year, David Willetts, the universities minister, said campuses should be doing more to encourage applications from white working-class boys and they should be treated in a similar way to other under-represented groups. (10)The Commission's analysis also found students from the richest fifth of neighbourhoods in England were ten times more likely to go to top universities than those from the poorest fifth of neighbourhoods. (11)Meanwhile, as a sign of things to come, two universities are merging this month to become one of the biggest higher education institutions in the country. (12)The University of Glamorgan and the University of Wales, Newport will join to form the University of South Wales. The new university will have 33, 584 students. (13)Professor Julie Lydon, vice-chancellor of Glamorgan, said the merger was partly the result of an unpredictable environment for higher education. "There is no doubt that how you survive(as a university)is either by becoming a boutique institution or a large and general one and we have chosen the latter, " she said.