London, Oct.15 : Prominent British universities Oxford and Cambridge have condemned reports that have described these two traditional and well known academic institutions as elitist in their selection policies.

Both universities have rejected fresh attempts to pressurise them into admitting more working-class applicants.

Labour's favourite think-tank -- The Institute for Public Policy Research -- has claimed that pupils from fee-paying schools were over-represented at both universities.

It also said the institutions must stop blaming a lack of working class applicants for the failure to widen the social mix. They must instead be more pro-active in encouraging applications from students at comprehensives who had achieved three As at A-level.

But Cambridge attacked the IPPR's research as 'misleading' while Oxford said it was fundamentally flawed.

Dr Geoff Parks, head of admissions at Cambridge, said: "About a fifth of students doing A-levels get three As.

"Cambridge is interested in the top five per cent. The A grade at A-level is no longer a good means of identifying a field of competitive applicants."

The IPPR's findings were released days after Universities Minister John Denham said the question of whether Oxbridge is biased against state pupils must be settled before a review of tuition fees in 2009.

As part of an agreement with the Government to charge £3,000-a-year in top-up fees, Oxford University has said it will raise the proportion of undergraduates from state schools from 54 per cent to 62 per cent within five years.

Cambridge is aiming to boost its proportion from 57 per cent to between 60 and 63 per cent by 2012.

However, according to the daily Mail and The Telegraph, pupils trying to get into Oxford and Cambridge will face a battery of entrance tests.

For the first time, students applying to study English and philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) at Oxford will sit an entrance exam. It recently introduced aptitude tests in physics, history, mathematics and computer science.

The two universities insist A-levels are no longer an accurate barometer of ability

In the mid-80s, fewer than half of students applying to Oxford and Cambridge gained straight As, but this year almost every candidate is expected to achieve the feat.

Most students are preparing to sit aptitude tests at the end of October — often during half-term holidays – prompting claims from head teachers that students are overloaded.

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) wrote to both universities earlier this year to complain about the timing.

Oxford's entrance exam for PPE, which gets 1,300 applicants for 250 places each year, is designed to assess "the ability to think critically, reason analytically, and use language accurately and effectively without having to rely on any particular subject knowledge", said the university.

At Cambridge, admissions to the similar social and political sciences course (SPS) suggest that candidates take Advanced Extension Awards (AEAs), or super-A levels, which ask for "logical and critical thinking skills and a greater depth of understanding than required at A-level". (ANI)