Kirsten Johnston wants to make her parents proud by becoming the first member of her family to go to university.

But the 16-year-old from Kirkcaldy, Fife, admits when she started Highers this year she began to doubt whether her dream of studying law would ever become a reality.

Not only did she get a "bit of a fright" because of the tough nature of her coursework, she also worried whether it was financially viable for her to leave home to study in the future.

Now, Kirsten - an S5 pupil at Viewforth High School in Kirkcaldy - is more determined than ever to become a lawyer after taking part in a week-long university taster course run by the Fife and Tayside Wider Access Forum.

During her time on the course, called Lift Off, she visited a number of universities and colleges, including Dundee and St Andrews, and experienced what is was like to live in student halls, take part in coursework and learn about budgeting and how to get financial help.

"I loved going to all the different colleges and universities and finding out about them and, since being on the programme, I know I want to go to university as soon as I can," she said.

"Ever since I started 5th year, I knew it was going to be challenging for me, and it gave me a bit of a fright, but taking part in Lift Off gave me the support I needed to say to myself that I could achieve the grades I need and go on and fulfill my ambitions."

Kirsten is exactly the sort of pupil the Fife and Tayside Wider Access Forum, funded by the Scottish Funding Council and HBOS Foundation, was set up to help.

Sarah Morrison, a development officer with the forum, founded in 2006, hopes it will have a significant impact on the lives of pupils who have the ability to go to university, but might otherwise not go.

"We come across attitudes that people are scared by the idea of going to university, think it is not something for them or don't want to move away from home," she said.

"Where a family does not have the experience of going to university, even if they are incredibly supportive, they often cannot offer the right advice.

"What we do is try to show people what is available, that it is something for them, and inspire and support them to work hard to get the grades they need. A lot of it is about building confidence."

The signs are that Lift Off and the many other schemes like it across Scotland are beginning to have an impact, although progress is slow.

New figures from the Scottish Funding Council show the proportion of students from the most deprived postcodes in Scotland entering higher education has risen steadily from 35 in every thousand in 2000 to 38 in every thousand today.

Over the same period, participation rates among students from the most affluent areas has dropped from 64 per thousand to 60 per thousand.

The figures were yesterday welcomed as a step in the right direction, but all those involved in the sector admitted a lot more needs to be done to close the gap further.

Two important questions remain to be answered. Is it possible for universities alone to make a significant difference to the proportion of students arriving at their doors, or do schemes such as Lift Off merely scratch the surface of what are significant and intractable social inequalities requiring a much more widespread political intervention?

In addition, if universities can continue to expand the number of students from poor backgrounds, then, in a system which has a set number of student places every year, will that displace others, such as those from middle class backgrounds?

The charge of social engineering has always hovered over those institutions who seek to discriminate positively in favour of pupils from deprived backgrounds and the changing trends highlighted in the Scottish Funding Council report will set those alarm bells ringing.

Murdo Fraser, education spokesman for the Scottish Conservative Party, has already suggested the need for the situation to be monitored in future.

"It is important that we have a principle that people who are making the grade should not be artificially excluded because, perversely, they come from what is deemed to be a better socio-economic background or went to a better school," he said.

Interestingly, Universities Scotland, which represents university principals, agrees, although it sees the solution in the further expansion of higher education places rather than changing strategies to widen access.

"There are currently some 30,000 funded undergraduate places in Scottish universities, a figure which has not changed in the last decade, so if you expand one group in a contained system and that kept going then it would eventually mean displacement," said a spokesman.

"There is no evidence that is happening at the moment, but it should not have to be the case that success at widening access should be at the expense of others. If this kept going the eventual pressures would mean you would have to expand the number of funded places."

Universities Scotland also believes that, as encouraging as the figures are, the gradual nature of the improvement shows that what is being done is very much at the margins.

Lyn Tett, professor of lifelong learning at Edinburgh University's Moray House School of Education, said so much of the inequalities underpinning access rates to higher education were outside the influence of universities and colleges.

"Universities and colleges are doing so much in terms of providing access to higher education courses for all, but, of course, part of this is about issues of poverty.

"It is impossible for universities to manage that on their own and what we are talking about are much wider political decisions and societal decisions about where we put resources and how those resources are translated into educational attainment."

Like Ms Tett, John Field, professor of lifelong learning at Stirling University's Institute of Education, believes one significant focus is what goes on at school level.

"On the whole, widening access schemes make it possible for those that are qualified, but may not be considering higher education, to go, but the challenge is at the school level to drive up attainment in those who are not suitably qualified, but given the right support, do have the ability," he said.

"The Scottish Government has a number of policies for school development, including the new Curriculum for Excellence, but it is far too early to say what changes that will make.

"There is an argument for using resources in a much more targeted way in the areas of greatest need so we see the best teachers and the smallest class sizes in s most deprived areas.

"That might just start making a real difference."