The government is facing calls for an urgent review of student financing after official figures showed that the number of state school pupils going on to higher education had dropped the year tuition fees soared to £9,000.

A report by the Department for Education showed that the percentage of state-educated pupils going on to universities and colleges in 2013/14 fell to 62%, from 66% in the previous year.

Among those calling for a root and branch review to widen access were the shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, the National Union of Students and a body representing teachers and lecturers.

They say the cost of university, which often also includes high rent, has become prohibitively expensive for children from low to middle income households. Student maintenance grants for students on low incomes were axed this week and replaced by loans.

Rayner said the government was “slamming the doors” on students who have the talent but not the income to further their education.

The figures represents a widening of the gap between state and independent schools, which sent 85% of their pupils to higher education in the years before and after the fees hike.

The study, Widening Participation in Higher Education, does not indicate whether the fees are a definitive barrier to attending higher education, but notes that the 2013-14 university entrants were the “first cohort where all students were affected by the change in tuition fees in 2012-13”.

The Education minister, Jo Johnson, said more work needed to be done to create “a society that works for everyone”, adding that that “everyone in our country should be allowed to rise as far as their talents will take them, whoever they are and wherever they’re from”.

But Rayner said the reason for the fall was obvious. “It doesn’t take a genius to work out that by tripling tuition fees to £9,000 a year, the Tories have put a huge barrier to higher education in the path of students from low and middle-income families,” she said. “It’s all very well for Jo Johnson to say more needs to be done – but rather than scrapping maintenance grants this week, the government needs to look again at the whole question of student finances.”

She said the UK needed a system that is “sustainable, affordable and opens up educational opportunities for the next generation, especially for young people from poorer backgrounds”.

Janet Clark, education policy adviser at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said the figures were not surprising given the average student leaves university with £44,000 of debt. “Many young people who have experienced their families’ financial struggles as children will be wary of taking on such a huge burden of debt,” she said .

Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust and of the Education Endowment Foundation, said the figures were concerning, adding: “The reality is the cost of going to university in England has become so expensive that it may now be a deterrent for many young people from non-privileged homes.”

He said there needed to be renewed and concerted efforts from government, schools and universities alike to widen access.

The Tories also faced calls for change from the National Union of Students which said the present government continued the “coalition’s rhetoric that high fees and debt” were not putting off students. “For a government that talks the talk on social mobility, it needs to seriously consider the effect its market reforms are having on higher education participation,” it said. “The cutting of grants to the poorest students and further increases in tuition fees proposed down the line are sending a message to many families that university isn’t for people like them.”

The figures were released days after the government scrapped maintenance grants for students from poor backgrounds in England, replacing the payments of about £3,500 with additional loans. The percentage of state-educated children going to the most selective universities in the country including Oxford and Cambridge has remained the same at 23%.

However, the report makes cautionary reading for government ministers and educational leaders, who have pledged to increase the chance of those from poorer households getting to university. Overall, the number of state-educated students going on to tertiary education has declined over the past five years.

The figures show 71% of state-educated children were in higher education by the time they were 19 in the 2009-10 academic year. By 2013-14, this had dropped to 62%.

Katie Hopgood from Croydon, a 20-year-old state school-educated student, said living costs should also be taken into account. “Rent costs at university are way too high. My student loan doesn’t even cover the cost of the rent,” she said. “If I were doing A-levels now, I would seriously consider trying to commute somewhere from home instead.”

Georgina Hodson, 22, who abandoned plans to take her place in Birmingham University to become a bilingual personal assistant, said she was “100% put off by the fees and the thought of lifelong debt”.

Ucas, the central university applications body, said its own research on the impact of fees showed they were initially “a barrier to poorer householders” but that quickly recovered, with record numbers now attending university and college. “It interrupted a trend. The question is would figures in higher education be higher if the fees hadn’t gone up,” said a spokesman.

Tuition fees were introduced by Tony Blair’s government at the start of the 1998 academic year. This £1,000 annual payment rose to £3,000 under legislation introduced in 2004, which came into effect for students starting in 2006. The Conservative-Liberal Democratic coalition hiked these fees to £9,000 in 2010, a move which sparked student protests.

The latest Ucas data shows there are record numbers of people from disadvantaged backgrounds going to university and college – with young people from the most disadvantaged areas 65% more likely to enter higher education than they were 10 years ago.