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Ministers embraced the recommendations of a think-tank of educational experts and business leaders, set up by Gordon Brown soon after he became Prime Minister. It aims to widen access to universities and boost aspirations among children who would not normally progress to higher education.

Proposals by the National Council for Educational Excellence include taking primary schoolchildren to university campuses to raise their ambitions and inspire them to think about careers. As well as the Prime Minister, the council includes university vice-chancellors, the chief executives of Tesco and Rolls-Royce, the Director-General of the CBI and head teachers.

The report said: “Higher education institutions should continue to use and, where possible, expand the range of information available to them to identify the best students with the greatest potential and ability to reach the highest academic achievement.

“In the interests of openness and fairness, institutions should publish their admissions policies and make them easily accessible to applicants.”

Steve Smith, Vice-Chancellor of Exeter University, said in the report: “It is time for those who care about widening participation to focus on raising attainment and raising aspirations from a much earlier age, so that we can deliver the best education possible for all our young people.”

The report said that the Government should consider asking Ofsted to rate schools on the quality of advice on higher education given to pupils.

It said: “Every primary school should devote time to work on student aspirations to take up a place in higher education. Schools should try to ensure that every pupil visits a higher education campus, either during primary or early secondary education, concentrating initially on schools in low participation or deprived areas.”

Professor Smith told The Times: “Higher education institutions should use contextual data [during student selection], but there should also be transparency and fairness.

“The intellectual argument is clearly established now that students from poorer-performing schools who get into university actually outperform children from good schools. It's not grades that matter but potential.”

Universities should judge a student in the context of how well his or her school had traditionally performed, rather than by their background.

The grades required would nevertheless be lowered only marginally: to read English at Exeter, for example, a candidate from a poor school would need two As and a B rather than three As.

He said that information on how many pupils from each school went into higher education could be made available, so that head teachers could “benchmark their performance”.

The report also recommends that schools forge close links with businesses, with the aim of increasing motivation among young people and making academic subjects seem more relevant to their future careers.

Mr Brown said: “The recommendations will help us to achieve our goal of achieving world-class standards of education.”

Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, said: “Universities make strenuous efforts to seek out potential, but, as we've said consistently, they cannot admit people who are not applying to university.”

The Sutton Trust, an educational charity, said: “Children from affluent families have their sights set on university by age 11, and it is important that youngsters from non-privileged backgrounds also have high aspirations.”

Culloden Primary, a school in the East End of London with a high proportion of pupils from Bangladeshi families, has forged links with the University of Cambridge. This year children were taken punting on the Cam and toured King's College Chapel.

Andrew Flewitt, director of studies in engineering at Sidney Sussex College, told them: “UK industry is in need of young engineers to ensure this country remains at the cutting edge of technology.” Amanda Phillips, the executive headteacher, said that such visits were vital to broaden pupils' horizons.

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