How can universities improve access without lowering standards?

By Eliza Anyangwe. Cambridge is saying no to 'social engineering' for fear it will reduce standards. Does it? Tell us how you think universities can widen participation without compromising academic merit.
Here's my recipe for academic success: mix two parts student effort to one part teacher/institutional effort, liberally sprinkle with attentive parenting and mix vigorously. Bake for 13 or 14 years in a stable, nurturing environment with an expectation that students will succeed (rather than end up in jail) and the chances are that they will. Seems simple enough, but is it?
Let me give you some context for this theorising on social mobility and academic success: on 9 September, the Telegraph ran a story about the universities (namely Cambridge and Reading) who were resisting pressures to make "adjusted offers to working-class candidates", as requested by Les Ebdon, the new head of the Office for Fair Access (Offa).