Universities will be ordered to attract more working-class students today by the education secretary.

Estelle Morris will renew Labour's "anti-elitist" crusade on the higher education sector in a speech to vice chancellors when she will launch a campaign to open up higher education to all sections of society.

"Universities are not a birthright for the middle classes. None of us can defend the position where five times as many young people from professional backgrounds - 73/74 per cent compared with 13/14 per cent - and when that gap has not narrowed in recent time," she will say.

She will also say that universities should "tailor courses to meet business needs" and produce more graduates for the local economy rather competing with each other in the academic "vacuum".