The Government has defended its record on helping poorer students get into university after a report accused the University of Oxford of failing to do enough.

Universities Secretary John Denham spoke out after a study by the National Audit Office said Oxford University's performance in attracting students from lower income families had been significantly worse than expected in 2006/7.

The NAO, Parliaments spending watchdog, revealed that Oxford's oldest university had underperformed despite spending 35% of its income from the £3,000 student top-up fee on bursaries to attract young people from poorer backgrounds - one of the highest rates of spending in the country.

By contrast, student recruitment at Oxford Brookes was described as significantly better to what had been expected of it, despite the institution spending only 24% of its top-up fee income on financial support for poorer students over the same period.

English universities received £456m in extra income from top-up fees in 2006/7, awarding bursaries that ranged from the statutory minimum of £310 to £3,150. But as many as 12,000 students missed out on bursaries last year, the NAO said.

Meanwhile, white people from lower socio-economic backgrounds were the most under-represented group at universities.

Universities can be punished financially if they fall short of their benchmarks for poorer students, by being denied the right to levy the £3,000-a-year fees.

However, in the two years since fees came in, the Office for Fair Access has not found any institution guilty of breaching agreements for widening access.

Mr Denham, challenged in the Commons about the NAO report, told MPs: "Far more people are going to university today than were able to do so under the previous government because we have invested in higher education.

"We want to ensure young people who have the ability, but don't aspire or apply to university do so in future."

He added: "The number of young people from lower economic groups that get accepted to university was the highest ever on the most recent figures."

Mr Denham said from this autumn, for the first time, every 18-year-old would know they would be able to get public funding for education or training, whether at university or as an apprentice.

He said: "By raising the participation age of education the most disadvantaged young people least likely to stay in education and training will be able to do so."

Speaking to the Oxford Mail afterwards, Mr Denham said: "We are talking about changing the aspirations of 12 and 13 year-olds and working with schools to identify their talents earlier.

"They are the people we lose because they don't apply to university and schools don't spot their talents and encourage them. We are not going to get overnight change but things are going in the right direction."