The SNP has hit out at the UK Government for cutting grants for students attending English universities after miscalculating the number of students eligible.

The UK Government has now reduced the income threshold for mean-tested grants by 17 per cent to £50,020 after it admitted underestimating the number of students eligible for full maintenance grants.

As a result, around 40,000 prospective students from middle-income families will not receive partial grants next year, following a £200 million overspend by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

Commenting on the mistake, SNP MSP Aileen Campbell remarked: "Thank goodness students in Scotland are benefiting from the excellent policies introduced by the SNP Government – including reintroducing free education and new resources for grants.

"What a contrast with the disastrous position south of the border, where the UK Labour Government are slashing resources for grants by £200 million.

"It's a real tale of two governments – the SNP delivering in Scotland, and Labour cutting in England."

Angus MacLeod, the national convener of the Federation of Student Nationalists, added: "This news will come as a terrible blow to thousands of students in England who would have budgeted for that grant.

"Of course, students south of the border are also being penalised by Gordon Brown's government through being forced to pay thousands of pounds a year on tuition fees.

"Whilst students south of the border are seeing banks being propped up and bailed out by the UK Government to the tune of £500 billion they must be wondering why they are paying the price for Labour's incompetence?

"Thankfully, the SNP Government has abolished this tax on education in Scotland."

Universities Secretary John Denham is set to face further criticism from the SNP today when he visits Glenrothes as part of Labour's by-election campaign.