Christopher Ray, chairman of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, which represents more than 250 top independent schools, said that the use of “positive discrimination” in the admissions system risked acting against pupils from the fee-paying sector.
Currently, universities are expected to draw up targets to boost the number of pupils admitted from state schools and poor families.
But Dr Ray, High Master of Manchester Grammar School, said the process was not sophisticated enough to take account of pupils from selective state grammar schools or comprehensively-educated teenagers sent to private tutors by their parents.
The system also risks overlooking the thousands of pupils from the poorest families given bursary places at independent schools, he said.
The comments come amid continuing concerns over the use of “social engineering” in university admissions.