Newham College has been awarded a share of more than 10,000 undergraduate places for this autumn in a government university shake up.

A total of 20,000 places have been stripped from higher education institutions in England to be auctioned off to colleges and universities charging �7,500 or less a year in tuition fees.

More than half of the places have gone to further education colleges such as Newham College in East Ham to encourage growth in “low cost” alternatives to traditional universities.