ONE of the North-East's flagship universities has hit back at accusations that it is failing to recruit enough students from poorer backgrounds.

Durham University was one of 17 institutions identified by the Government's Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) for failing to be sufficiently "socially inclusive". Those identified could face financial penalties as a result.

The figures showed just over 15 per cent of students admitted to Durham were from disadvantaged groups, while almost a third of students were from independent schools.

Newcastle was also singled out for its high proportion of independent school students -more than 26 per cent.

A Durham University spokesman said the figures, based on the 2002-03 year, did not reflect progress made to attract people from state schools.

He said: "We are seeing a continuing rise in state school applications and admissions, which reflects the university's targeted recruitment work".

A Newcastle University spokesman said: "We have made good progress towards our benchmarks, or targets, for widening participation in the UK as a whole, and have exceeded them within the North-East region, where we have been concentrating our efforts."

The HESA performance figures identified Sunderland University as recruiting a good proportion of poorer students.

The university did less well when it came to completion rates for its courses, with more than a third of students dropping out.

Just over 94 per cent of students at Durham completed their degrees, 87.8 per cent at Newcastle and 79.2 per cent at Northumbria University

At York University, 89.9 per cent of students enrolled on degree courses completed them.

No figure was available for Teesside University.