Just two Westcountry schools are among the top 100 in the country for sending the most students to Oxford or Cambridge universities, new figures reveal.

Only Colyton Grammar in East Devon and the independent Exeter School feature in a list dominated by schools from the South East.

No Cornish schools feature in the top 100 league table, according to a list published in the House of Commons library.

A second break-down indicates that in parts of the region very few students consider applying to Britain’s two most prestigious universities.

Last year, just seven students in the Plymouth Moor View constituency sent their UCAS form to an “Oxbridge” college, which local MP Alison Seabeck described as “shocking”.

In Cornwall, only seventeen youngsters from the St Austell and Newquay area applied to read at Oxford or Cambridge. The two universities received entry forms from 57 students in Taunton Deane and 54 from Tiverton and Honiton.

Mrs Seabeck, Labour MP for Plymouth Moor View, said: “They are shocking figures for my constituency, because it is not for the want of trying. There are very bright young people in Plymouth and the surrounding areas. But if you come from a family with no history of going to university it is a big leap from that to Oxford or Cambridge.”

She warned the three-fold increase in tuition fees, meaning a three-year degree could cost up to £27,000, risked lowering expectations further among students in the region.

Fierce debate surrounds why some regions secure fewer Oxbridge places than others, with elite universities saying they do their utmost to be accessible to all.

Of students who took their GCSEs in 2006, Colyton recorded 15 pupils going to Oxbridge and Exeter sent 10 in 2010, according to research in the Commons library.

The number of Oxbridge applications were: West Dorset 64, Taunton Deane 57, Tiverton and Honiton 54, Somerton and Frome 50, Totnes 45, East Devon 44, Truro and Falmouth 40, Exeter 39, Torbay 39, Newton Abbot 32, South Dorset 31, Central Devon 31, Yeovil 30, Torridge and West Devon 28, Plymouth Sutton and Devonport 27, North Devon 26, Bridgwater and West Somerset 25, South East Cornwall 23, St Ives 23, South West Devon 21, Camborne and Redruth 19, North Cornwall 19, St Austell and Newquay 17, and Plymouth Moor View 7.

Stephen Gilbert, Liberal Democrat MP for St Austell and Newquay, said: “All young people should be able to access the same opportunities regardless of their family background or the place they’re from.”