UNIVERSITIES need to form partnerships with schools much earlier to attract students from disadvantaged backgrounds, new research shows.

Rather than focusing recruitment efforts on year 11 and 12 students in low socio-economic areas, universities would have a better chance of meeting new Federal Government targets if they worked with students from year 7 upwards, the research from Melbourne University finds.

The Government has set ambitious targets for universities, with 20 per cent of undergraduate enrolments to be students from poor backgrounds by 2020.

Study author Dr Brenda Holt, who is chief of staff at Melbourne University's Trinity College, found most students had decided whether or not they wanted to go to university by early secondary school. While financial pressures were often cited as a reason for difficulty in accessing university, Dr Holt said this factor was sometimes overplayed.

''The decision to leave a community and go to university is actually very complex and finance is simply a hurdle to overcome, rather than a make-or-break factor,'' she said.

Dr Holt's thesis, which won Melbourne University's Chancellor's Prize for social studies, looked at the experiences of rural women who studied at the university. She found that most students had been identified as intelligent by their teachers or parents early on, and had imagined going to university from a young age.

Academics have previously expressed doubt about the Government targets, with Melbourne University vice-chancellor Professor Glyn Davis saying Victorian universities would struggle to meet them.