Government cuts are preventing Britain's top universities recruiting more people from state schools and disadvantaged backgrounds, funding chiefs said this week.
Brian Fender, chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, said that universities were having to "eke out" money for programmes such as widening participation, in the face of continuing 1 per cent cuts in state funding for higher education.
Sir Brian said: "We have done the best we can and that is mirrored at institutional level. (Universities) would like to do more but they do not have the resources. If we are faced with reduced resources then our ability to top-slice funds (for widening access) is restricted."
Sir Brian launched a robust defence of the sector's widening participation record at an education select committee hearing on Wednesday. It amounted to a rebuttal of recent accusations of "elitism" at the country's top universities. Attacks were fuelled by the case of state-school pupil Laura Spence who was rejected by Oxford after interview, only to be accepted by Harvard.
Select committee chairman Barry Sheerman (Labour, Huddersfield) took the attack a stage further, blaming Hefce for failing to champion the cause of widening participation. Mr Sheerman underlined the point by suggesting that Sir Brian should adopt a "hobnailed boots" approach to negotiations with the education department on widening participation.
But Mr Sheerman said that universities had done very little to widen participation and what they had done was a bit late. "Hasn't Hefce some responsibility for this?" asked Mr Sheerman.
Sir Brian said that the funding council allocated Pounds 24 million for widening participation this year, but again, he said, "this was against a background of continuing cuts". He said the council's first priority was to keep universities running.
Liberal Democrat higher education spokesman Evan Harris (Oxford West and Abingdon) suggested that the real problem lay in the lack of applications from state-school and less well-off pupils rather than with the university admissions systems, which had been singled out for attack by the government.
Sir Brian agreed. He said: "(Institutions) are committed to widening participation, (but) what we are talking about now are... the barriers to higher education. Obviously we need to look at all the barriers... there is not going to be a single simple solution to widening participation."
Hefce's written submission to the select committee said: "The issue is only partly in the hands of HEIs. Although the HE sector must do what it can to ensure that its doors are open to all those who have the potential to benefitI the real breakthrough will come with the success of the government's policies to improve achievement in schools."
The document said widening participation was a relative goal. It said: "We encourage each institution to increase accessI in ways that are coherent with its own mission. Thus, some institutions are focused largely on drawing in local students from poor backgrounds. Others seek to provide for students of the highest ability. We do not believe it would be right to curb the mission of either."
The select committee is holding an inquiry into higher education, including access and funding.