Graduates are facing a jobs market where employers are "pulling up the ladder behind them", according to one expert, which could mean more university-leavers choose to become contractors instead.

Tanya de Grunwald, founder of GraduateFog.co.uk, said that graduates looking to work in the media, politics or charity sectors will be expected to work without pay for at least several months before being considered for a poorly-paid job.

She added that graduates have been let down by the coalition as well as the previous government, as both focused on the financial side of university without giving them any help when they leave.

"Clearly, the maths doesn't add up here. What we're seeing is many graduates moving home to live with their parents and taking bar work or temp work in their local town" and "tragically, they seem to accept this".

Meanwhile, research by the ING Direct Consumer Savings Monitor, approximately one-quarter of 16 to 17-year-olds are thinking again about what to do upon leaving school due to the planned tuition fee increase.