Scottish and EU students are finding it increasingly difficult to get a place at university north of the border, according to a report from Audit Scotland.

The public spending watchdog has published the results of its first major review of higher education, highlighting a 6% real terms cut in the amount of cash universities receive from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).

While the Scottish Government provided more than £1.7bn to universities and students in 2014-15, the report said institutions are "placing increasing reliance on generating income from fee-paying students from the rest of the UK and outside the European Union".

As a result it has become "more difficult in recent years for Scottish and EU undergraduate students to gain a place at a Scottish university", the report said.

With ministers having committed to ensuring a fifth of university students come from Scotland's most-deprived areas by 2030, Audit Scotland warned if this is to be achieved without an increase in funded places it "will likely mean fewer students from less deprived backgrounds being offered a university place".

Students from Scotland and other EU countries are entitled to free tuition under the SNP's flagship education policy, but from 2012-13 undergraduates from England, Wales and Northern Ireland have had to pay fees of up to £9000 a year, while the charges for international students from outside of Europe can be as much as £47,200 a year.

With Audit Scotland saying the sector faces "a number of significant challenges", including the possibility of further cuts in Government funding, the report highlighted the "increasing reliance" universities have on fee-paying students to boost their incomes.

Of the 232,570 students at Scottish universities in 2014-15, 66% were Scottish, the report said, adding that "the student population is becoming increasingly international".

The offer rate - the proportion of applicants offered a place - for Scottish students from universities north of the border has fallen from 57% in 2010 to 50% in 2015.

In contrast, the offer rate for international students from outside the EU in 2015 was 63%, with the rate for applicants from England, Wales and Northern Ireland ranging between 56% and 58%.

Last year almost one in five Scots (19%) applying to university did not receive any offers from a Scottish university, up from 15% in 2010.

Caroline Gardner, auditor general for Scotland, said: "Given the growing pressures on public finances, the Scottish Government must be clear about its priorities for higher education and how it will target public funding to support those aims.

"It also needs to work with the Scottish Funding Council and universities to plan for addressing the challenges ahead."

Professor Pete Downes, convener of Universities Scotland and principal of the University of Dundee, said the report "makes it clear that higher education is facing a range of very real funding pressures that need to be addressed".

He said the university sector in Scotland "is one of the best in the world but our current success is seriously threatened by the funding pressures identified and quantified in the report".

Labour education spokesman Iain Gray said the report "lays bare the impact on higher education of the SNP's refusal to protect education budgets".

"Schools and colleges have suffered, but this report reveals how the budget for universities has also been cut," he added.

Shirley-Anne Somerville, the minister for further and higher education, said the Government was investing over £1bn in higher education this year.

She said: "Supporting all students, particularly those from less advantaged backgrounds, is a top priority for this Government. That is why we have committed to implementing all of the recommendations made by the Commission on Widening Access and reviewing student support.

"Since 2007, the number of Scottish domiciled full-time first degree entrants to Scottish universities has risen by 11% and a record number of students successfully completed full-time higher education courses at colleges in 2014-15."