Higher education

1.7m students 43% of 18 year olds enter higher education Oxford has fewest state schools pupils Highest proportion of state school pupils at Queen's, Belfast Lowest drop-out rate at St George's Medical School Highest drop-out rate at Bretton Hall 51.5% Oxbridge undergraduates from state schools

But Oxford and Cambridge remain among the lowest scorers in this chart of social inclusion, alongside University College London, Bristol, St Andrews and the London School of Economics.

Among those with the highest proportion of state school pupils are Queen's University in Belfast and the University of Ulster, which both recorded 100% of state school pupils.

Each university has been given an individual target - or "benchmark" - for the expected proportion of state school pupils and both Queen's University and the University of Ulster have substantially exceeded their targets, which could in theory be claimed as an under-representation of former public school pupils.

But under other indicators of social inclusion show that universities are struggling to recruit students from the poorest families.

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From the poorest quarter of the population, only 12% of students attend university - the same as last year - and well below the national average.

Again the most prestigious universities drew the smallest number of children from poorer families - with less than 10% of students at Oxford and Cambridge being drawn from deprived areas.

The highest proportion of students drawn from deprived areas was the University of Paisley, where 34% of students were from so-called "low participation neighbourhoods".

The tables also show the rates at which students leave courses without finishing degrees - which are deemed important in terms of efficient or inefficient use of budgets.

In the University of North London, Thames Valley and Bretton Hall, more than a fifth of students drop-out of courses - with claims from a lecturers' union that such high figures represent a total loss of �180m a year.

This contrasts with almost no students dropping out of courses at St George's Medical School, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics.

The National Union of Students has claimed that this is the result of financial hardship, with students unable to afford to stay in university - with the universities drawing the poorest students most likely to be worst affected.

The drop-out rates have also divided lecturers and university chiefs, with the Association of University Teachers describing the highest drop-out rates as "astronomical" and a waste of public funds.

While the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals hailed the figures as showing that the UK's university system was the match of any in the world and that drop-out rates compared favourably with international competitors.