The heads of the seven universities are to meet the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, next week to discuss how to improve access to third level for pupils in disadvantaged schools.
The latest figures show 171,847 pupils are attending schools classified by the Department of Education as disadvantaged.
The figures for the current school year show that 508 schools are designated as disadvantaged out of a total of almost 4,000 in the State.
The figures - obtained by The Irish Times - are broadly in line with the number of pupils classified as attending disadvantaged schools over recent years.
The figures were recently submitted to the EU's human resources development monitoring committee, which monitors EU states and how they use money derived from the European Social Fund.
There are 318 primary, and 190 post-primary schools designated as disadvantaged. The total amount of supplementary grants (which are additional to ordinary capitation) paid to these schools was £6.8 million, up from £5.45 million the year before.
The only major change in the figures is caused by the expansion of the home-school community liaison scheme, which now covers 524 schools, compared with 309 last year.
The figures show there are also 156 schools involved in the Breaking the Cycle scheme, the vast majority of which are in rural areas. This scheme costs £3.6 million and involves about 13,486 pupils.
While the number of pupils attending schools designated as disadvantaged has remained similar, the resources allocated have increased.
For example, the Department told the EU there were 1,652 remedial staff contracted by the Department in 1998/1999. According to the figures it has submitted for this school year, there are now 2,022 remedial teachers. The number of guidance counsellors has increased slightly, from 567 to 580.
The meeting between the university heads and Dr Woods will take place against this background. Dr Woods is expected to stress that the universities need to do more to increase their intake of disadvantaged students.
The recommendation from the Points Commission that 5 per cent of places on all third-level courses be reserved for disadvantaged students is likely to be discussed.
According to sources, the universities are likely to tell Dr Woods that if third-level access for the disadvantaged is to be improved, more resources will be necessary from Government.
The universities all operate access programmes, but many of these involve small numbers of students and need more funds to expand.