Britain’s top universities are paying millions of pounds to recruit foreign students with poor exam results while denying places to better qualified UK applicants, it is claimed.

Scholars from overseas can allegedly buy their way in with a handful of C-grade GCSEs.

The “back door” routes are so lucrative that middlemen are pocketing a fortune to hunt down wealthy pupils, who pay fees up to four times higher than those from the UK.

These students now take a third of all places – with 689,000 in 2022

The highest number come from China.

Private go-betweens take around 20% of fees paid by a first-year student and sign the recruits up to pathway courses.

The Russell Group of top universities said: “Foundation year programmes have long proved to be effective pathways to university for both international and UK students.”