BURSARY support for students has fallen by £40million since 2007, according to figures obtained by the Scottish Conservatives.
The Student Awards Agency for Scotland confirmed the total level of bursaries, which do not have to be repaid, fell to £63.6million last year.
Responding to a Freedom of Information request, the grants body said the figure stood at £104.8million in 2007, when the SNP came to power, and rose to £127.7million in 2010 before being cut.
The figure is forecast to fall further, to around £60million, next year.
Ruth Davidson, the Scots Tory leader, accused the SNP of failing students from poorer backgrounds.
The attack followed a report from experts at Edinburgh University which concluded the SNP's policy of free tuition had not widened access to higher education but had "embedded social inequality".
A separate Universities UK report said students from poorer backgrounds in Scotland were half as likely to get to university than those in the rest of Britain.
Ms Davidson said: "The SNP claims its policy on no tuition fees helps those from the poorest backgrounds.
"Now that experts have dismissed this, Nicola Sturgeon has to face up to the facts.
"Not only are those people from the most deprived areas not getting their foot through the door, but their bursary support has fallen too."
She added: "The SNP is slashing college places and has cut bursaries – and now the universal free tuition policy designed to counter those things has been shown not to work."
Earlier Ms Davidson, who supports the re-introduction of a graduate tax to fund support for less well-off students, challenged Ms Sturgeon on the issue during First Minister's Questions.
She told MSPs the SNP had "gutted" funding for student bursaries.
Ms Sturgeon insisted more students from disadvantaged backgrounds were making it to higher education.
She said there had been a 24 per cent rise in the number of people from the most deprived communities achieving a university qualification since the SNP came to power and the number of 18-year-olds applying to university was up by 50 per cent.
She said: "Scotland is reducing the attainment gap at university faster than the rest of the UK.
"Those are the facts and what will certainly not help us make any further progress is to go down the road of the Tories by taking away bursaries from all students.
"We will continue to make sure that we have a funding support package for our students that supports students, particularly those from the poorest backgrounds, to go to college and university."
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