Cambridge tackles ‘reverse discrimination’ by aiming for 50 per cent private school intake

A leaked email has revealed a new Cambridge University policy to increase private school intake as a way of tackling “reverse discrimination.”

The initiative will aim to increase the percentage of privately-educated students in Cambridge to 50 per cent of all undergraduates. 

Currently, approximately 29 per cent of undergraduate students at Cambridge are privately educated. This is an over-representation of privately-educated students, who make up around seven per cent of students in the UK.

The new policy will ban colleges from using “contextual data”, where school backgrounds are taken into account when reviewing applications. Any member of admissions staff caught favouring a student because they went to a state school will be made to undergo “mandatory anti-reverse-discrimination training.” 

The Cambridge Tab spoke to some parents of private school children who had long been campaigning for improved support. 

Arabella Perton-Walby, mother of three-year old Archibald Perton-Walby, expressed her excitement at the new policy plans. 

She said: “We’ve been campaigning for these changes for a very long time. In the last couple of years, it has become nearly impossible for privately educated students to get into Oxbridge. I heard about one private school applicant who could recite the entire Iliad and was still rejected from studying classics. Another applicant had been completing daily mock interviews since they were five years old and still didn’t get a place.

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“When Archie was born, my husband and I had to have a serious conversation about the possibility that he wouldn’t get in. I’m just so glad that this new policy means the future generation will be less likely to face discrimination because of their elite financial backgrounds.”

Harold Fortwright-Biblington, professor of British colonial history, has also spoken out in favour of the policy.

He explained: “This policy marks an historic step for Cambridge University. In my many decades of teaching at the university, I have witnessed a significant decline in the quality of the students. The bestial swarms of state school students have too long threatened the university’s ecosystem.

“I recently heard that around sixty per cent of students don’t understand the Latin grace that is read out at formal dinners. This is a clear erosion of the old Cambridge way of life, and must urgently be remedied. Ultimately, this is an institution that prides itself on tradition, and it’s crucial that this fact is reflected in the demographics.

“In order for Cambridge to preserve the prestige that it has acquired over centuries, the university still has a long way to go. For example, I am a long-time advocate for the reversal of regrettable policies in the 1970s which saw an overwhelming increase of females applying. Nevertheless, this new policy marks a strong step into the right direction.”

The policy is set to come into force in November 2026.

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Featured image via Unsplash and Cambridge University logo