St Andrews University has said it is working ”very hard” to support its poorer students.
It was defending itself from criticism by the National Union of Students over drop-out rates for undergraduates who come from deprived areas.
The NUS used freedom of information laws to find out how universities are handling the task of holding on to students whose personal circumstances can make it difficult for them to stay in higher education, often through lack of money.
It found significant differences between institutions, claiming the drop-out rate for poor students at St Andrews in the three years to 2010-11 was 15% 11% higher than their better-off counterparts.
By comparison, the gap was under 6% for Dundee University and only 2.5% at Abertay University.
A St Andrews spokesman said the university believes the statistics quoted by the NUS are unreliable.
The number of students from the poorest parts of Scotland who went to university was so small that percentage changes were essentially meaningless, he said.
The spokesman added: ”The most up-to-date figures for drop-out rates at St Andrews show that our retention rate in 2011-12 for students from deprived backgrounds is 100%.
”At approximately 96%, our overall retention rate is amongst the best in the UK and we work very hard to support all students, and particularly those whose backgrounds make higher education a more challenging prospect.”