Universities and colleges are to be ordered to help deliver the government's drive to stamp out the deadly brain disease meningitis by urging first year students to get immunised before they start the new term this autumn.
But the announcement will trigger fears that doctors' surgeries will be unable to cope with the demand, while colleges are concerned about the extra cost of passing on the information.
The department of health is expected to write to the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals in the next few days advising its member colleges to tell all new students - estimated at 300,000 - to seek immunisation from their own GPs.
Under plans announced last month by the health secretary Frank Dobson, a new vaccine is to be given to thousands of babies, children and teenagers. The vaccine, which protects against Group C meningococcal infection, the type most commonly associated with mass outbreaks of the disease, is described as the first to offer real protection.
A spokesman for Southampton university - which lost three of its students to the killer disease in 1997 - already recommends that new students seek immunisation from an existing vaccine at least two weeks before arriving on campus. The vaccine takes a few days to take effect.
Undergraduates are being targeted in the new immunisation programme because the 15-19 age group is the most vulnerable, accounting for about 40% of all reported meningitis cases.
But last month the education and employment secretary David Blunkett suggested that student health centres would be ideal for students seeking advice and immunisation.
Yesterday the spokesman for Southampton university said: "It is not clear whether the new advice is going to be health advice, which means the NHS will pay, or whether we will have to pick up the tab. But it could be another burden for colleges at one of the busiest times of the academic year."
Andrew Pakes, president of the National Union of Students, said colleges should be warning their students about the symptoms of meningitis and how to get immunisation.
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