Fee discounts worth an average of £950 a year have had “no material effect” on university applications, it was claimed.

The Office fpr Fair Access said that students from deprived backgrounds were slightly less likely to enter elite universities last year than in the mid-90s, despite the introduction of bursaries designed to ease the financial burden of a degree.

Teenagers from wealthy backgrounds were 5.1 times more likely to get into these institutions in 2009, compared with 4.6 times 15 years ago, it was disclosed.

Offa – established by Labour to regulate access to higher education – said universities should consider diverting some of the cash spent on bursaries towards outreach projects in schools and colleges.

The Russell Group, which represents 20 top universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, insisted that poor GCSE and A-level results remained the biggest barrier to higher education.

Wendy Piatt, director general, said: “Educational achievement at school, rather than financial considerations, is the most important factor in whether a student will go onto higher education or attend a leading university.”

Million Plus, which represents new universities, suggested that bursary funds could be used to cut tuition fees.

Pam Tatlow, the group’s chief executive, said: “It would be administratively and economically more efficient to remove the statutory bursary and reduce fee levels for students with universities compensated with additional teaching funding.”

Since 2006, universities have been allowed to charge more than £3,000 a year in tuition fees. As a condition, they must spend some of the additional cash on bursaries for the poorest undergraduates and promotional campaigns to attract applicants.

Some £304m was spent on bursaries and scholarships in 2008/9. This was in addition to direct state grants for students from poor families.

Institutions charging full tuition fees must provide a minimum bursary of £300, although the average bursary is almost £1,000. The size of awards alters depending on the number of eligible students at each university. Elite universities – with fewer students from poor backgrounds – provide payments of up to £3,000 per candidate.

The latest study – Have Bursaries Influenced Choices Between Universities? – analysed millions of students applying for degree places to gage the effect of fee remission.

It found an overall rise in the number of poor students entering higher education – but not at the top universities that offer the largest bursaries.

In the mid-90s, some 3.3 per cent of students from deprived backgrounds were admitted to the top third of universities, but this proportion stood at 3.2 per cent last year, it was disclosed.

“Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are no more likely to enter these institutions today than in the mid-1990s,” said the report. “The participation trends do not suggest that the higher bursaries on offer at some institutions have had a material effect on the participation rate of disadvantaged young people in those institutions.”

Sir Martin Harris, Director of Fair Access, said: "This new analysis shows that the larger bursaries generally offered by the most selective universities have not changed students' decision-making when applying and choosing between offers."
--By Graeme Paton,23 Sep 2010