Britain’s main student union has issued recommendations designed to ensure that universities are accessible to students from all backgrounds despite steep tuition increases that will take effect in 2012.

In an open letter sent on Tuesday to Simon Hughes, who was appointed last week to the new position of advocate for access to education, the National Union of Students outlined six recommendations. They include ensuring that the upper tuition limit of £9,000, or nearly $14,000, remains the exception rather than the norm, and that most universities charge £6,000, or around $9,300.

Mr. Hughes, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats in Parliament, abstained from the contentious vote last month in the House of Commons that passed the tuition increase. In his new job, he “will be expected to be an advocate for the legislation—despite not having voted for it himself,” The Financial Times says.

The letter from the student-union president, Aaron Porter, notes that Mr. Hughes’s new position has been described as “being a kind of ‘window dressing,’” and that “it will be a challenging role.”