NICOLA Sturgeon has admitted the Scottish Government has not made sufficient progress in its drive to get more students from deprived backgrounds into university.
The First Minister insisted official figures showed a modest improvement in recent years in the proportion of students from the poorest parts of Scotland going on to study for a degree.
But she told MSPs: "I have made it clear that, although we are making progress, I do not think that that progress is going far enough or fast enough."
She also repeated earlier warnings to use recent legislation to "ensure that universities do more".
Ms Sturgeon faced criticism from Labour during First Minister's Question after figures from the universities admissions body UCAS showed a fall in the number of applications from and places awarded to hopefuls from the most deprived 20 per cent of areas.
The figures showed 1215 students from the group won a place last year, compared with 1305 in 2014.
St Andrews University, one of the most prestigious in the country, admitted only 15 students from the most deprived areas.
Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, said poorer teenagers were "less likely to apply, less likely to be accepted and more likely to drop out," because of cuts to financial support.
Ms Sturgeon insisted the figures did not tell the whole story, as they omitted those who went to university but not straight from school.
Overall, the picture had improved since 2010, she told MSPs.
The Scottish Government is about to appoint a "fair access commissioner" to lead its effort to increase the number of students from poorer backgrounds.
Recent legislation will also allow ministers to impose conditions on higher education funding in order to encourage institutions to take a bigger share.
Ms Sturgeon's comments failed to silence criticism from the opposition parties.
Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesman Tavish Scott said the figures were "shocking".
He added: "The SNP came to power on a promise to dump student debt.
"Instead, bursaries and grants have been slashed. The SNP have had nine years to ensure that young people from a poorer background are on a level playing field with their contemporaries.
"But while they have been busy building monuments to their education policy, students have been let down badly."
Tom Harris, the former Labour MP who heads the Scottish Vote Leave campaign, said: "The biggest problem for our universities is our membership of the EU which means we are forced to pay for the free tuition of EU students.
"This costs over £80million a year and rising, which has led to cuts to bursaries and places for Scottish applicants.
"If we leave we can charge EU students and use the money to fund bursaries and more places for Scots."
In a separate row, the SNP called on Labour to apologise for presenting "inaccurate and misleading" figures suggesting the number of girls taking science Highers had fallen.
The party produced figures showing a rise in girls taking most science subjects at Higher, if newly introduced versions of the exam were included in the breakdown.
Nicola Sturgeon dismissed Labour's figures during clashes with the party's education spokesman Iain Gray during First Minister's Questions.
Later, SNP MSP Jenny Gilruth said: "Either Labour have deliberately manipulated the facts or they have been exposed as not knowing that Highers were being reformed.
"Either way Labour must retract these inaccurate and misleading claims about Scottish education."
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