CHARLES CLARKE is quietly sidelining the Government’s target of getting 50 per cent of young people into higher education. He will emphasise instead that universities’ first priority should be to admit a greater proportion of working-class students.

The Education Secretary will not formally abandon Tony Blair’s manifesto goal of getting half of young people into higher education by 2010, but The Times has learnt that he will broaden the definition to include one-year college courses and home study.

The move will be interpreted by universities as a signal to concentrate on recruiting more bright children from poorer homes rather than simply expanding their numbers.

It also reduces financial pressure on them to expand courses to meet the Government’s recruitment target. The decision confirms that students will have to repay higher tuition fees after graduation rather than at the start of courses.

One senior government source said that Mr Clarke would be emphasising quality rather than quantity in the White Paper he is to publish next month. “The social mix of people entering higher education is our first priority.”

Mr Clarke, who announced a £1.2 billion increase in further education funding last month, will emphasise the need to develop high-quality vocational courses in colleges, including two-year “foundation degrees”.

More part-time study, including courses taken at home using computers and the internet will also form part of the target. Mr Clarke is known to be concerned that, although the numbers entering university have expanded rapidly, the proportion from poorer backgrounds has changed little.

Only 17 per cent of 18-year-olds from working class families in England go to university compared with 73 per cent from middle-class backgrounds. "It is palpably untrue that only 17 per cent of working class kids are bright enough to go. The most important thing is that they have the opportunity," the source said.

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