General secretary of the University and College Union (UCU) Sally Hunt will make the claim in her keynote speech at a conference in central London.

She will say the quality of research, college entry standards and the choice of degree courses are set to suffer from the rise of private funding in education.

According to figures supplied by the UCU, private investment now represents 30% of all spending in further education in the UK - double the EU average.

Sally Hunt will say: "The market in higher education, which the Government pursued through the tuition fees policy, has led to strategically important departments, like Physics at Reading University, being axed at the whim of an anxious vice-chancellor because he or she doesn't see them as sustainable in the current market.

"They can do this with no regard for national or local provision, which has led to us now having areas of the country where a student seeking to study certain courses does not have a local option.

"Why should that student be forced to move to another part of the country just to follow their dream? What happens if they cannot afford to?".

A report on 'Marketisation and the growth of the private sector in tertiary education' will be launched at the conference.

It argues private funding threatens the future of quality research because unfashionable subjects will find it difficult to attract support.

It cites a report from the New Economics Foundation showing the growing role of the oil and gas industry in the funding of research in geology departments. That report claimed far more research is being done on fossil fuel extraction than on renewable or sustainable energy as a result of industry influence.