The number of state school pupils going on to attend university has fallen since tuition fees were raised to £9,000, a report by the Department of Education has revealed.

62 per cent of state-educated pupils went on to higher education in 2013/14, a drop of four per cent compared to the previous year.

However, the figures for state school pupils who went on to attend the most selective institutions including Oxford and Cambridge did not change, remaining at 23 per cent.

The study, entitled ‘Widening Participation in Higher Education’, also showed a sharp rise in the gap between the progression rates of state- and privately-educated pupils, with the gap rising from 18 percentage points in 2011/12, the last academic year before fees were trebled, to 23 percentage points in 2013/14.

The proportion of independent school pupils going on to higher education remained the same as the previous two years, at 85 per cent.

64 per cent of privately-educated pupils went on to attend the most selective institutions, meaning that there was a 41 per cent progression gap between independent and state pupils at these universities, up from 39 per cent before higher fees came into effect.

Responding to the figures, Universities Minister, Jo Johnson said: “We are seeing record numbers of disadvantaged young people going to university”, but acknowledged that, as a gap in the progression rate is “still persisting”, more needed to be done “to build a society that works for everyone”.

“Everyone in our country should be allowed to rise as far as their talents will take them, whoever they are and wherever they're from,” he continued.

However, Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, challenged Johnson, claiming: “It doesn’t take a genius to work out that by tripling tuition fees to £9,000 a year, the Tories have put a huge barrier to higher education in the path of students from low and middle-income families.”

Rayner went on to claim that “the government needs to look again at the whole question of student finances.”

The Department of Education’s report comes days after the scrapping of maintenance grants for the poorest students came into effect, and two weeks after it was announced that the tuition fee cap will be raised to £9,250, in line with forecasted inflation.

Last month, University of Cambridge admissions statistics for its 2015 intake revealed that 62.3 per cent of Home matriculants came from state schools, with the proportion of privately-educated matriculants remaining above the national average at 37.7 per cent.