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A "major financial house" has specified in an advert placed with information technology recruitment consultancy Computer Futures that candidates must be "redbrick graduates".

The advert, on their website, was for a data and systems manager. It said the redbrick graduate must be ambitious but that no experience was needed.

A spokesman for the Higher Education Funding Council for England said: "To advertise in this way is to close off opportunities to a major sector of very gifted and able graduates."

A spokesperson for the consultancy said: "How we advertise our jobs depends on the clients' requirements."

Peter Prince, deputy director of the school of computing and maths at the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Teesside, said: "There is still prejudice against new universities; it takes at least ten years to break down the barriers."