Nearly one in four universities and colleges in the UK failed to meet their own targets to recruit more poor students last year, a new report shows.

Universities will struggle to offer enhanced student support as extra fee revenue will be used to plug funding gaps

In total, 44 institutions, including 23 universities, five of which are elite universities, did not meet the goals they set themselves in 2009/10.

The figures are included in the Office for Fair Access’s (OFFA) fourth monitoring report, which looks at how much money universities and colleges are spending, and how well they are doing at attracting and supporting candidates from poorer backgrounds.

It shows that overall, English universities and colleges received £1.57 billion (€1.81 billion) in additional fee income in 2009/10.

This is additional fee income gained from tuition fees charged above the basic rate of £1,285. The maximum fee in 2009/10 was £3,225.

OFFA’s report shows that a quarter of this extra income (25.1 per cent) – £394.7 million – was spent on recruiting and supporting poorer candidates, with £355.7 million going on bursaries and scholarships.

In return for charging above the basic fee rate, institutions must submit access agreements to OFFA setting out how they plan to help poorer students.

This includes setting their own targets on increasing the numbers of applicants or entrants from poor or under-represented groups.

The report raises concerns that while 77 per cent of institutions have either met or exceeded all or most of their targets, 23 per cent (44 in total) are falling short, despite making positive progress.

OFFA director of fair access Sir Martin Harris said: “The large majority of universities and colleges are also meeting their statistical targets. Where they are not doing so, I am concerned to understand the reasons why.

“Over the coming months, we will therefore be discussing performance with a range of institutions, including those that have reported the least progress.”

The report shows that more students are receiving financial support, but the average bursary awarded is smaller.

Three-quarters of money spent on bursaries and scholarships in 2009/10 went to students from the poorest backgrounds, helping more than 271,000 youngsters on full state support.

On average, these students receive a bursary of £935 a year, down from £942 in 2008/09 and £1,019 in 2007/08.

Sir Martin said institutions can decide to give funding to “more or less everybody” or decide it is only for students on the very lowest incomes.

“What we’ve tried to do is encourage universities to focus money more on students that are genuinely disadvantaged,” he said.

Smaller average bursaries is “going in the wrong direction”, Sir Martin suggested.

“It is better to focus more on students whose income level is particularly low.”

He added that the latest report is for 2009/10 and universities are likely to be encouraged to focus on giving large sums to smaller numbers of very disadvantaged students in the future.

Sir Martin said that outreach work – encouraging poor students to apply to university – is vital.

“Developing access is at least as important as bursaries for students who have already joined,” he said.

“That’s what elite universities need to work on more – identifying students at an early age who will then be plausible candidates.”

He added that it was also essential that teenagers receive the right independent advice and guidance on higher education in school.

His comments came as an analysis of figures contained in the report, conducted by the University and College Union (UCU), revealed that students at elite universities receive larger bursaries, because there are fewer of them.

The union’s analysis suggests that the 2,676 Oxford University students holding a bursary or scholarship in 2009/10 received around £2,302 on average, while the 1,528 bursary students at Imperial College London received an average of around £2,284.

And the 2,652 students receiving financial support from Cambridge University were awarded an average of £2,176.

At the other end of the scale, there were 12,314 students receiving financial help from the University of Northumbria at Newcastle in 2009/10, each receiving an average of £628.

There were also 5,484 bursary students at Bedfordshire University, receiving £754 on average.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: “It is over-simplistic to suggest that it is the size of bursaries alone that determine where students study. However, we need to provide better support for students from poorer backgrounds wherever they study. “The universities with the best records of recruiting students from the poorest backgrounds have higher drop-out rates and cannot offer bursaries to match the elite institutions.

“Under the new fees system, universities will struggle to offer enhanced packages of student support as extra fee revenue will be used to plug funding gaps following government cuts.”

Fees are due to rise to a maximum of £9,000 next year.

Liam Burns, president of the National Union of Students, said: “The haphazard formation of student support in universities means that those universities with the best record of recruiting those from non-traditional backgrounds have the least money available to spend per student.