Charles Clarke said that Oxford and Cambridge had to lose their Brideshead Revisited image, and that other leading universities should demonstrate that they welcomed students from all social backgrounds. Many still gave the impression that poorer students from state schools were not wanted, he said.

Mr Clarke, who was educated at Cambridge, said: “I think Oxford and Cambridge should specifically be looking to a modern image of themselves, applying to the best and most talented people irrespective of social class. To that extent, the Brideshead Revisited image which Oxbridge sometimes transmits isn’t appropriate for that modern age. It’s 75 years out of date.”

Members of the Russell Group of leading universities and other research-intensive institutions sometimes gave the impression that they were exclusively for the middle classes. “Some universities appear — and this is anecdotal more than anything else — to send the message that only certain types of people are welcome,” he said. “I think it’s never a deliberate message but I think it can be a message that universities send out which they need to look at.”

Damian Green, the Shadow Education Secretary, accused Mr Clarke of stoking “class-war rhetoric” against Britain’s universities. “Charles Clarke’s sneering remarks about Oxford and Cambridge having to shed the Brideshead image shows a Government completely out of touch with the reality of life in our universities,” he said.

But Oxford and Cambridge acknowledged that they continued to have image problems with students in some schools. Richard Partington, chairman of Cambridge’s access steering committee, said: “There is a Brideshead image out there which is not representative of the university and we are working hard to combat it.”

A spokeswoman for Oxford said: “It is precisely because we know that the reality of studying at the University of Oxford is so different from the image that some people still have of us that we are working very hard to demonstrate why Oxford is the right place for the best and brightest pupils, whatever their background.”

The Education Secretary spoke as he set out plans for the new Office for Fair Access (Offa) to work with universities in England to attract a wider range of students. Those seeking to increase fees to a maximum of £3,000 a year from 2006 will first have to reach a five-year access agreement with Offa, which will start operating from 2005.

Mr Clarke said that the main barrier to university entry for poorer students was low attainment. Nine out of ten students with two A levels entered higher education.

The Government had responsibility for improving schools. But universities had to do more to seek talented students from all backgrounds. Thirty-five per cent of students who got three A grades at A level did not apply to Russell Group universities. They needed to know that the entire range of universities was open to them, Mr Clarke said.

In a departure from the White Paper on higher education reform in January, Mr Clarke said that the regulator would focus on the efforts to increase applications rather than on admissions. Evidence collected by the Department for Education and Skills showed that admissions policies were already “generally fair”, he said. There was an 8 per cent gap in applications to top universities between students from the top and bottom three social groups, but only a 1 per cent difference in admissions.

Mr Clarke said that Offa would have no powers to interfere in admissions policies, but individual universities would have to set “milestones” for raising the proportion of their students from poorer social groups and from schools with a history of low achievement.

Offa will judge whether the goals are demanding enough before giving permission to raise fees. Those that fail to make progress will be fined or ordered to cut their fees.

Universities will have to explain how they intend to build relationships with schools to persuade more students to apply. These would include visits by recruitment teams to encourage applications, and summer camps for students to break down stereotypes about elite institutions.

They will also have to show how financial aid will be increased to ensure that poorer students are not put off by higher fees.

Mr Clarke has appointed Professor Steven Schwartz, Vice-Chancellor of Brunel University, to draw up a statement of principles on fair, transparent, and professional admissions procedures.

Born and educated in the US, Professor Schwartz, 56, taught at the universities of Illinois and Texas before moving to Australia in 1978, where he became Vice-Chancellor of Murdoch University, Perth.

He told The Times yesterday that he wanted to see how admissions procedures could be made more transparent and professional. English universities gave responsibility for admissions to academics on a voluntary basis. American institutions employed full-time professionals, which ensured greater consistency in decisions about applicants.

Students were also entitled to know what universities were looking for in candidates and why their applications were successful or not. Professor Schwartz said: “That transparency is pretty important and I am not sure we have achieved it.”

He is the second American drafted in to help reform England’s universities. David VandeLinde, Warwick’s Vice-Chancellor, has been put in charge of a task force on cutting red tape.

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