It was “not easy” to convince the Treasury to bring back maintenance grants, according to Jacqui Smith, who said she would “run screaming” if people continued to criticise England’s proposed international student levy without offering an alternative way of funding widening access.

Maintenance grants are set to return for the first time in a decade under plans announced by Labour in September, funded via the levy on fees.

The skills minister told a conference hosted by social mobility charity The Sutton Trust on 19 November that the government’s decision to limit the grants to priority courses “will by definition leave out some people” but it was “an important step forward”, hinting that eligibility could be expanded further in future.

Universities have welcomed the return of grants but said any benefits for widening access could be wiped out by the levy, which would force them to cut domestic places for students as a result of being unable to use overseas fees as a cross-subsidy.

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However, Smith rebuffed the criticisms. “Let’s not forget this is a decision made at the time of considerable fiscal challenge for the government,” she said.

“The fact that [education secretary] Bridget Phillipson, who felt passionately about the need to reintroduce maintenance grants, was able to find a route and to convince the Treasury of the need to do this as an important start to the reintroduction of maintenance grants is to her credit in my view. But don’t anybody in this room think it was an easy thing to win.”

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More details on the levy are expected in next week’s budget, with some universities lobbying the government to introduce a flat fee rather than the percentage tax first envisaged.

Smith said she was tired of people welcoming the return of grants on the one hand, but criticising the levy on the other.

“If I hear one more person, say to me, ‘Given the financial challenges that we face as department, we’re really keen on the maintenance response, but we’re really not that happy about the international student levy’, without providing any solution to where they think the money should come from, I will probably run screaming.”

When asked how the government intends to encourage greater collaboration between higher education and further education to improve social mobility, as set out in its recent skills White Paper, Smith said it was the responsibility of universities to put the White Paper into action.

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“A lot of the response to the White Paper has been, ‘So how are you going to make this happen?’ Not all of this can be driven by or directed by government, nor should it be,” she told the event, organised in partnership with the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

“Institutional autonomy” in the higher education sector means it is “the responsibility of government to set in place the objectives and vision for the sector” but she added: “Having set out that vision, I’m afraid there is an element of saying to the sector, ‘What are you going to do now to deliver that?’”

Smith continued: “There’s a responsibility on government here, and we will continue to take that responsibility, but there also needs to be some ownership from the sector.”

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com