Cambridge today will condemn attempts to force elite universities to recruit more pupils from state schools and disadvantaged backgrounds.

In a robust attack on government “meddling”, Alison Richard, the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, will say that universities are not “engines for promoting social justice”.

Ministers have repeatedly called on elite universities to do more to attract students from poor backgrounds. Last night Professor Richard told The Times that the role of Cambridge was to educate and to lead research, not to “fix problems of social mobility”.

She said: “We try to reach out to the best students, whatever their background. One outcome of that is that we can help to promote social mobility. But promoting social mobility is not our core mission. Our core mission is to provide an outstanding education within a research setting.”

Speaking at the annual conference of Universities UK today, Professor Richard will welcome increased government interest in higher education, but say that such interest can also “encourage meddling”.

Professor Richard will say: “As institutions charged with education, research and training, our purpose is not to be construed as that of handmaidens of industry, implementers of the skills agenda, or indeed engines for promoting social justice.”

Ministers are increasingly encouraging universities to work with business and industry in designing degree courses and to promote the commercial relevance of their research.

Professor Richard told The Times: “The risk is we are being asked to help fix industry’s latest technological problems. We can’t do that.”

She agreed that more young people could benefit from a university education and said that she hoped that neither family poverty nor fears about not fitting in should discourage students from applying to Cambridge.

It was for this reason that the university judged applications on the basis of their perceived potential, not just on their academic attainment at A level.

Last week Cambridge announced that the proportion of students it will admit from state schools this year has risen to 59 per cent, the highest level since 1981. State schools educate 93 per cent of all pupils in England.

Some vice-chancellors do not agree with Professor Richard. One said: “The Government gives me a cheque every year. I have a public duty to do what the Government says.”

A spokesman for the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills insisted that any measures to encourage widening participation at universities were voluntary. “We value the independence of universities, but we also want to get the best students into the best courses,” he said.

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