Cracking down on international students to drive down immigration could force universities into bankruptcy, Rishi Sunak has been warned.
The Prime Minister is considering the move after official figures showed the highest level of net migration since the Second World War.
Yesterday the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said an estimated 1.1million people had arrived in the UK in the past year, with 504,000 more people arriving rather than departing.
The change would see tens of thousands of students barred unless they are awarded a place at an elite university.
But Professor Brian Bell - chair of the Government's migration committee - told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there were a "number of problems" with the approach.
Professor Bell said: "If you're interested in the Levelling Up agenda you might want to worry about harming universities around Britain.
"It could send many universities over the edge.
"Are you willing, for example, to massively increase the fees of British students pay to offset the losses that would happen if you close down the international student route?"
Asked whether universities could go bankrupt, he said: "Well, yeah.
"Most universities for most courses lose money on teaching British students and offset that loss by charging more for international students.
"If you close down the international route I'm not sure how the university continues to survive".
Today Number 10 said a crackdown on international students is being looked at.
A No10 spokeswoman said: “We’re looking at the issue of student dependents and and low quality degrees and we're doing that following the figures released yesterday.”
Asked about concerns this could lead to bankruptcy, she said: “We support our excellent universities.
"We’ll be looking at this issue as we have these figures now in detail, and considering all options.”
A crackdown would be a big U-turn on the government's International Education Strategy, introduced in 2019, which sets a 600,000 foreign student target in order to boost education exports.
This target was met in 2020-21.
