Ian Johnston, principal of Glasgow Caledonian University, has invoked Martin Luther King's words about American blacks in the 1960s in describing disadvantaged young people in Glasgow.
"He said: 'Being a Negro in America means the pain of watching your children grow up with clouds of inferiority in their mental skies'," Dr Johnston said.
"I do not think it is too far-fetched to apply this view to the stark inequality of access to higher education experienced today in Glasgow. We see it throughout the city, in Easterhouse and Possilpark, just half a mile up the road from this university."
Speaking at the inaugural chancellor's dinner at GCU to an invited audience of MSPs, officials and business and civic leaders, Dr Johnston urged the Scottish Parliament to recognise the extra costs of educating students from less advantaged backgrounds.
This week, Scotland's centre for research in lifelong learning has warned that the current emphasis on lifelong learning may actually widen the "learning divide" rather than narrow it.
Research fellow Beth Crossan of Glasgow Caledonian University told the second Scottish forum on lifelong learning: "The people who are most likely to experience social exclusion are least likely to participate in education."
Lifelong learning alone could not combat social exclusion, since it was taken up by those who already had an educational track record.