St Andrews University has been named and shamed in a damning report by the NUS as the university in Scotland with the largest ratio of wealthy to poor students.
At the prestigious institution, which counts Prince William among its alumni, there is a ratio of 1:28 of most deprived to least deprived students. The university took only 13 students from the most deprived areas in the 2011 academic year, which the NUS deemed "awful".
The Unlocking Scotland's Potential report, published on Wednesday by the Scottish arm of the student union, also found it would take 40 years to reach fair and representative access in Scotland.
Across the country, for every one student from the most deprived background recruited to university, there are 2.5 students from the wealthiest. Edinburgh and Aberdeen were also named and shamed as the institutions with the worst records on widening access.
The report found far from being ignorant of the issue, universities "know what works to increase access - they're just not doing it on a large enough scale". According to NUS Scotland, universities have found disadvantaged students who have had their grades topped up or been admitted through summer schools, can either match or outperform their peers who have higher grades and are from wealthier backgrounds.
NUS leaders have now called on the Scottish Parliament to introduce widening access agreements with Scottish universities and to increase pressure on institutions to up their work on summer schools, differential offers and top-up grade routes.
Robin Parker, NUS Scotland president, said universities could "clearly do a great deal more".
"Our report shows our universities are clearly missing out on people with huge potential from our most deprived communities.
"Achieving fair access is therefore not about some kind of social engineering or charity, it's about getting the best people into our precious university places.
"If universities fail on widening access, they're failing on their most central of missions - getting the most talented people into university."
He added MSPs must fight to introduce legally binding and enforceable widening access agreements to challenge universities to do more.
St Andrews has previously lashed out against criticism of its low intake of deprived students by blaming inequality and long-term poverty rather than its admissions policy.
Last week it emerged Scottish universities would face heavy fines for failing to admit enough students from poor backgrounds if radical reforms proposed by the SNP are given the go ahead.
A spokesperson for the Scottish Executive said: "Widening access remains a priority for the Scottish government and we will continue to work with the NUS on this important issue."
St Andrews has been contacted for comment but has not yet replied.
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