STUDENT leaders have attacked Scotland's ancient universities for opposing plans for legislation to force them to recruit more students from deprived backgrounds or face fines.

It comes after Universities Scotland, which represents university principals, said the Scottish Government proposals would not address long-standing problems of inequality.

And a number of individual institutions also questioned the plans – with St Andrews arguing that statutory force "may lead to bad practice".

Now, student presidents from St Andrews, Edinburgh and Aberdeen have penned a joint letter criticising the stance taken by their institutions.

"We were disappointed to read of our institutions' hostility to increased Government legislation on widening participation," the letter states.

"Our university management claim this is a political intervention, but we accept that urgent action is needed over the number of students from state schools and from the most deprived areas who gain acceptance to Scotland's top institutions.

"We recognise that work on improving access to higher education must go beyond higher education and extend into all aspects of our communities, including primary, secondary and further education. Yet the ancients should not use this as an excuse to abdicate their own responsibilities. Since they receive public monies, universities have a duty to do all they can to attract students from lower income backgrounds."

The letter, signed by Patrick O' Hare, president of St Andrews students' association, Tessa Birley, president of Aberdeen students' association and Matt McPherson, president of Edinburgh students' association, called on universities to shake up entry requirements to assist the drive to widen access.

They added: "It is doubtful that the regretful view put forth by the management of our universities is shared by their staff, students or the communities in which we operate.

"We sincerely hope that the attitude does not signal a reluctance to fulfil their duty to society."

The row follows the publication in September of Mr Russell's paper, Putting Learners At The Centre, which first suggested plans for the new legislation. It said universities should be placed under a statutory duty to seek out talented pupils from schools who routinely send few pupils to higher education. It added that universities that did not meet strict targets on widening access would be fined.

But consultation documents on the plans, published last week, revealed strong opposition from institutions.

The Universities Scotland submission states: "We believe further progress on widening access to university is a system-wide challenge in which universities have an important role, but which is fundamentally reliant on early-years and school-level action to ensure that learners from challenged backgrounds are able to realise their full potential.

"We want to make further progress, but do not believe that statutory targets for universities' widening access admissions are the answer."

Despite the opposition, Education Secretary Michael Russell said last week he intended to press ahead.

Robin Parker, president of NUS Scotland, said: "The reaction by the most elitist institutions against proposals to increase access to university for the poorest communities was very disappointing.

"Making sure that university places are given on the basis of genuine merit must be our goal and we believe it's one we can achieve."