Universities are failing to recruit white, working-class students despite receiving £400 million from Government to widen participation, regulators claim today.

The National Audit Office report says teenagers from deprived backgrounds “remain significantly under-represented” in higher education.

White boys from working-class families are less likely than any other group to take a degree.

The report says there are significant variations between the success of universities in their attempts to attract students from different backgrounds, with former polytechnics doing better than Russell Group universities.

Collectively, they used £21 million of the money raised last year from tuition fees on widening participation, but some spent nothing.

However it stops short of holding universities entirely responsible, recognising that low academic achievement earlier in life and poor careers guidance in school are also to blame to the lack of progress.

It says: “Over the past five years there have been some improvements in the participation of some groups in higher education, but not for all groups.

“The participation rate for men is currently 10 percentage points below that for women. Those from non-white ethnic groups are better represented than white people.

“Socioeconomic background remains a strong determinant of higher education participation. People from lower socioeconomic backgrounds make up around half of the population of England, but represent just 29 per cent of young, full-time, first-time entrants to higher education.”

The report says that “low achievement by some pupils in secondary schools is the principal reason for the difference in the rates of participation.

“There are geographical areas with little or no local provision of higher education, whereas increasing numbers of students want to study locally or live at home.”

Some students are unaware they are eligible for bursaries. Family expectation also has a huge influence on who progresses to higher education, the report said.

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