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Unis' 'little progress' in recruits
England's top universities have made "little or no headline progress" in recruiting students from poorer families in recent years, a watchdog has warned.
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Vince Cable: University should be about 'ability'
Business Secretary Vince Cable said going to university should be about "ability, not ability to pay".
It comes as a report has found that top universities are not doing enough to recruit students from poorer families.
A Cambridge University spokesman said: "Since this reporting period, which relates to 2010 entry, the University has made significant steps towards our key milestone of increasing state sector admissions without compromising academic standards.
"In September 2012, 63.3% of our UK first years came from the state sector, the largest proportion for thirty years. This exceeds our original objective and reflects attainment in UK schools."
An Oxford University spokesman said: "We have worked incredibly hard to ensure that any student with the academic ability to study at Oxford can do so regardless of financial circumstances.
"By spending more of our additional fee income on outreach and bursaries than any other mainstream university, we are able to offer the best no-strings financial support package for the poorest students in the country."
Universities must get 'smarter with investment'
In his forward to the OFFA report on top universities failing to recruit from poorer families, Professor Ebdon said most universities had met or exceeded the targets they had set for themselves, to recruit more students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
But he added that the picture as a whole was "not positive", with most universities making "little or no progress". He said:
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Unis make 'little progress' to recruit poorer students
Students from poorer families are still not being recruited by England's top universities, a watchdog has warned.
The Office for Fair Access (OFFA) said that universities had made "little or no progress", despite making a considerable effort and spending millions of pounds.
Top universities should do more to offer activities and schemes that will help to boost the numbers of disadvantaged students going into higher education, the organisation said.
OFFA Director Professor Les Ebdon warned that an "unacceptably large" gap exists between the numbers of rich and poor students attending leading universities.