Parents' education and incomes will play a greater role in the way universities in England are encouraged to recruit students from a wider range of backgrounds.

At a meeting with independent school head teachers, the Higher Education Minister, Margaret Hodge, confirmed the government was trying to find "more sophisticated" measures than simply setting quotas for the number of students admitted from state schools.

At present, the government monitors university intake on the basis of whether the students went to a state or private school, their social class and their home postcodes.

But it has accepted that this system has not been working very well.

In future, ministers are thinking of replacing these with a different set of measures:

• whether the students' parents went to university
• what the parents' income is
• whether the student has achieved good A-levels despite the poor average performance of their school - state or private.

The move is part of the government's determination to broaden access to university and will be in the strategy paper to be published in January, which will also set out policies on student fees.

Target

Mrs Hodge said: "We are determined to make sure our brightest young people get the best opportunities whatever their background.

The encouragement of lower offers to candidates simply because their schools achieve poor results is dubious policy based on questionable evidence Independent school heads

"We need to get more sophisticated with the way in which we measure universities' success at widening participation."

The government has set a target that, by the year 2010, 50% of those aged between 18 and 30 should have the opportunity to benefit from higher education.

At present, participation in England is about 40% - varying between regions from 35% in London to 24% in the North East.

Prior attainment

To achieve the "ambitious" 50% goal, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) is working with the Learning and Skills Council, which funds post-16 education.

Together they are making available at least �60m over three years, because Hefce says: "Simply reaching the 50% target without widening the participation of under-represented groups will not be deemed a success."

Universities have to come up with "widening participation" strategies and action plans - and if they do not, they will not get their main grants for teaching and research.

Forecasts by the Institute for Employment Research show that between 1999 and 2010 the number of jobs likely to need graduate skills will grow by more than 1.5 million - 80% of new jobs.

Unlocking talent

If the higher education sector does not supply the workforce, "Britain's ability to compete in the global economy will be severely weakened".

"We therefore need to unlock talent and potential in all sectors of society.

"However, at present young people from professional backgrounds are much more likely to enter higher education than those from unskilled and manual backgrounds."

Well-qualified children from working-class backgrounds are less likely to stay in education after 16 than their middle-class peers, and less likely to try to enter higher education.

Recent research published by Universities UK has shown that different perceptions of student debt and the value of a degree are significant factors in this.

Concerns remain

The independent school representatives were from the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Girls Schools' Association - Philip Evans, headmaster of Bedford School, and Sue Fishburn, headmistress of Leeds Girls' High School.

They said they remained concerned that the new criteria would lead to new unfairness for some while doing nothing to address the problem of underachievement in schools.

In a statement, they said: "She also agreed with us that university admissions procedures should be more clear and transparent and said that she would encourage universities to make them so.

"That too is welcome, as is her clear statement that A-level results will remain an important factor in selecting candidates for higher education."

Wrong approach

The aim of opening higher education to young people whose opportunities may have been limited by social deprivation or by the relative weakness of their schools was "a laudable objective and we support it".

But the idea of looking at parents' backgrounds and the achievement levels of the candidates' schools would still leave open the possibility of unfair discrimination.

"In particular, the encouragement of lower offers to candidates simply because their schools achieve poor results is dubious policy based on questionable evidence," they said.

It was also "a counsel of despair" which failed to address the real issue, which was to ensure that all schools were able to ensure that young people aimed high and achieved their full potential.