Bristol University has ruled out giving an A-level "head-start" to teenagers from disadvantaged back- grounds.

It welcomed plans announced by Lord Mandelson this week to give a wider range of students access to elite universities but said it was against targets or quotas.

The Business, Innovation and Skills Secretary, launching a framework for higher education in England over the next decade, said social mobility must be reinvigorated.

"Nobody should be disadvantaged or penalised on the basis of the families that they come from or the schools they attended, and the way in which a simple assessment based on A-level results might exclude them," Lord Mandelson said.

He cited an example of a student from Leeds who was the first generation in her family to go to university after gaining two As and a B at a low-performing school and was given a place to study English.

He said more universities should do likewise, but critics said this approach was "crude class warfare" and would penalise middle-class teenagers.

Bristol University spokesman Barry Taylor said the university and others had been taking into account the context in which students had gained their exam results for years.

"Candidates from less advantaged backgrounds who apply to Bristol have to display just as much motivation and academic promise as those from more advantaged ones," he said.

"What our admissions process does is acknowledge that while examination results at school are an important indicator of what an applicant may achieve at university, the context in which those results were obtained should also be taken into account. This is considered alongside a variety of other information in assessing how far an applicant is likely to go academically.

"Our bias is towards academic commitment and potential, not towards people from any particular kind of background. We have no interest in social engineering. The outstanding individuals we seek can be found in every part of society, and we're very active in seeking them out and encouraging them."

The university runs an active widening participation programme involving taster days, mentoring schemes, roadshows and summer schools, Mr Taylor said.

The latest figures show that just over three in 100 Bristol University students come from neighbourhoods where few people are educated to degree standard, while just 13.9 per cent have parents who are not working in managerial, professional or senior supervisory jobs.

The University of the West of England, in contrast, has a much higher proportion of first-generation undergraduates and students from less well-off backgrounds.

Lord Mandelson's framework, entitled Higher Ambition – the Future of Universities in a Knowledge Economy, also called for more part-time degrees for older students, closer links with business, a concentration on science research, improved teaching, and more information for students on how courses might help them get jobs.

Stephen Williams, the Liberal Democrat MP for Bristol West and the party's spokesman on higher education, said: "The Government has colluded with the Tories to keep tuition fees off the agenda until after polling day."

He said the Lib Dems wanted to scrap tuition fees and would fight any attempt to raise the upper limit.