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MPs have warned that "too little" is known about the effectiveness of £392m spent on widening access to higher education.
A report from the Commons public accounts committee, released on Thursday, was critical of the failure of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and the Higher Education Funding Council to assess the value for money of the policies put in place.
The money, spent between 2001/02 and 2007/08, was designed to tackle inequalities which see more than twice the proportion of people from upper socio-economic backgrounds going into higher education against those from lower groups.
"Despite the substantial amount of expenditure, progress in widening participation has been slow," said the report.
"Accountability for performance remains weak because the funding council does not require universities to provide information on widening participation activities and expenditure.
"This should improve with the planned reintroduction of the requirement for universities to report on their widening participation strategies and activities."
And committee chairman Edward Leigh said it is "dismaying that government seems to have little idea what the universities have been doing with this money".
"Certainly, progress has been poor. The rate at which working class young people participate in higher education has increased by only two percentage points," he added.
"The newer universities are doing better than the more traditional ones, especially those in the Russell group, at attracting young people living in deprived areas.
"That is not surprising - but the universities that consistently fail to improve the proportion of under-represented groups in their student population should sign up to improvement plans agreed with the funding council."
Leigh said it is of "crucial importance" to raise the aspirations of pupils from poorer backgrounds.
"Every school should have contact with at least one university," he said.
"And every university should engage with schools in disadvantaged areas.
"There is also a crying need for good face-to-face guidance for younger pupils on what they would need to do to gain access to the right university course and what financial support is available.
"No pupil from a deprived area should miss out on a potentially life-changing university education simply as a result of poor or non-existent guidance and advice."
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd