The number of British undergraduates at Oxford and Cambridge has fallen, amid concern that they are being “squeezed out” by higher paying foreign students.

There are now seven per cent fewer UK undergraduates at Oxford and five per cent fewer at Cambridge compared with a decade ago, according to figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

Meanwhile, students from overseas undergraduate students rose by 45 per cent at Oxford and 65 per cent at Cambridge.

Under EU laws, universities must charge European students the same level of fees as their British peers, but non-EU students can be charged at a higher rate.

Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said the decline in British student numbers at Oxford and Cambridge was the "sad but inevitable consequence" of the universities becoming more international but not adding places.

"In those circumstances, something has to give and it seems to be places for home students," he told the BBC. He said that to avoid “squeezing out” British students, universities need to "bite the bullet and accept more expansion".

There has been a demographic dip in the population of 18-year-olds in the UK in recent years, but the proportion of school leavers applying to university has increased.