A unionist MLA has described as "alarming" new figures which show that just a third of students attending Northern Ireland's universities are Protestant.
Jim Allister was responding to new figures from the North's Department of Employment and Learning which showed there are considerably more Catholic students at the two main universities.
"Of particular concern to me is the Jordanstown campus where there are 3,800 students from a Protestant background and 6,600 from a Catholic background," he said.
"The Jordanstown and Ulster University situation is worsened by the fact that there's a total imbalance in terms of the number of students from the Republic of Ireland.
"Whereas at Queen's there is essentially an equilibrium between the same number of students from Great Britain and the same number from the Republic, when you go to the University of Ulster, it is five times the number from the Republic as opposed from Great Britain.
The independent unionist said another big concern was that Protestant children not attaining the grades they needed to get into university.
"I certainly would like to see that addressed and more and more people from both communities, particularly from that neglected community, the Protestant boys' community in working class areas, being encouraged to work themselves up through the system.
"Whether, in turn, that eventually affects the university figures, we will see. But whether it does or doesn't off its own right, it requires to be addressed."
A spokesman for the University of Ulster said: "It is a sad reflection of society here that the religious composition of our student population should be a matter for public comment.
"The University of Ulster is open to everyone and provides a first class educational experience for its students."
Figures also reveal that less than a fifth of students at Magee College in Derry are Protestant.
