A confidential report by the Higher Education Authority is to recommend that higher education institutes should have to prove the success of their access programmes for disadvantaged students before being allocated specific funding from the State.
The report is be launched next week by the Minister for Education and Science, Ms Hanafin.
It also calls for every disadvantaged school, community and region to be linked to at least one higher education institution.
Entitled Achieving equity of access to higher education in Ireland, the report sets out a three-year action plan to improve participation by disadvantaged groups.
But it is severely critical of the way in which resources to improve access to third level are allocated, and says Ireland has had mixed results in its efforts to eliminate social exclusion and inequity.
Each year more than 4,000 11-15-year-olds drop out of school before the Junior Certificate.
In excess of 750,000 adults aged 25-64 have little or no formal educational qualifications, it states.
But although some €123 million is provided annually to enable participation by less well-off students, Travellers, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and mature students, it says the lack of adequate data makes it difficult to assess how effective such funding has been.
As a result, it says the HEA-linked National Office for Equity of Access to Higher Education has begun a review of each of the programmes for which it has responsibility.
Work is also under way with the Institutes of Technology (IOTs) and the Department of Education and Science to examine funding arrangements in these institutions, and is due to be completed by next January.
But it notes that as a result of different funding arrangements, universities receive greater levels of funding for access initiatives than the IOTs and other institutions offering higher education programmes.
While €100 million is spent annually on higher education and grant schemes, with a further €23 million allocated to financial support for students and access programmes, the report says it is often difficult to monitor and evaluate how effective they are in meeting their objectives.
As a result, the report recommends that future finance should be linked to proof of progress in widening access to higher education.
The report also calls for extensive collaboration between higher education institutions and second-level schools, the promotion of modular, credit-based learning, increased financial supports for part-time learners, and the "equality-proofing" of national and institutional budgets.