Leading Russell Group universities must “recognise the evolving economic realities which mean they can no longer assume top talent will continue to gravitate to them by default”, he said.
He added : “Such initiatives are becoming more urgent in order that the premier league UK universities do not find themselves unable to attract the best students, and end up relegated from the top division. ”
The comments come just weeks after figures obtained by the Telegraph showed that record numbers of British students were now taking courses in the United States.
Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Pennsylvania, Chicago, Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley, awarded more places to British students in 2012/13, it emerged.
Prof Blyth, who grew up in North London and studied at Cambridge before moving to the US, said there were 15 British undergraduates at Harvard in the early 90s but this number has now quadrupled to 62.
He said the average cost of a Harvard education – including fees and living expenses – stood at around £33, 500-a-year but dropped to £12, 000 when the university’s generous finance aid package was factored in.
British universities have started to seize the importance of building up endowments, particularly at a time when Government funding of higher education has dried up.
According to figures from Universities UK, philanthropic donations are increasingly seen as a source of income.
In 2006/7, universities reported £513m in total funds raised from 132, 000 donors, but five years later some £693m from more than 204, 000 people – a rise of 35 per cent.
Data published last year showed that Oxford had an endowment of £3. 8bn and Cambridge had a pot of £4. 5bn. Both institutions boast generous bursaries for students from deprived backgrounds.
However, these amounts are still a fraction of the size of endowments built up by many US universities.
Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, said : “Philanthropy is increasingly a priority for UK universities, and significant resources are being invested in this area.
" We cannot yet compare philanthropic donation to UK universities to those in the United States, but the picture is changing rapidly.
" However, it is relevant that the UK higher education system is quite different to that in the US, in terms of size, structure and the way institutions are funded.
“The UK has one of the top university systems in the world, second only to US, and achieves this on less funding than almost all our main competitors. That suggests we have a very efficient sector, but we have to make sure that long term our universities are sustainably funded. ”
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