Universities will have to become more transparent about how they select students, a government minister is due to say today.

John Denham, the Universities Secretary, will say that all higher education institutions must develop clear access policies. He is addressing the annual conference of the Higher Education Funding Council for England about attempts to achieve a wider social mix at universities.

The Government has set an ambitious target of 50 per cent of all 18 to 30-year-olds going to university by 2010. Figures released last month, however, appear to show that progress has stalled, with enrolments increasing by only 0.6 per cent in eight years, to 39.8 per cent last year.

Mr Denham is expected to tell the event at the University of Warwick: “Universities that try to take a student’s background and the challenges he or she has faced into account are liable to be accused of political correctness and social engineering.

But there are plenty of people prepared to take the fact of a disproportionate number of students from more privileged backgrounds at a particular university as prima facie evidence of snobbery and social bias on the part of admissions staff.

“Ultimately the debate is corrosive of public confidence in the system. The answer lies, as it so often does, in openness, transparency and accountability.

“It lies in each university having a published admissions policy.”

David Willetts, the Shadow Universities Secretary, said: “There is a serious problem of young people from modest backgrounds not getting through to university. But that’s because not enough are applying to university and it won’t be solved by government ministers trying to instruct universities who should and who should not be admitted.

“The problem is much more deep-seated within our education system and it needs much more fundamental measures to tackle it. That means more good schools.”

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