It’s official: These are the country’s most private school unis

Rah rah rah


The country’s unis are full of private school kids.

Yes, it’s a serious societal problem which speaks volumes about the closed shop of the upper echelons of British society and the invisible but sturdy barriers to breaking into the elite. But, also, it means that places like Durham end up full of annoying poshos.

Rah rah rah. If you go to one of the unis on this table, that’s probably all you’re used to hearing.

Well, it’s time to put some numbers to those noises. The good people at HESA have compiled stats on the percentage of students at each uni who went to private school

But in a couple of shocks, there are five unis more private school than Durham, and Cambridge only comes eighth on the list.

Two unis take less than half of their students from state school: Royal College of Music and Royal Academy of Music.

They’re followed by Oxford and St Andrews. It’s also little surprise to see over a third of students at Bristol, Exeter, and Edinburgh coming from private schools.

Find out how many students at your uni went to private school below:

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Source: HESA stats on state school students, all undergrads 2017/18 academic year

Just seven per cent of pupils across the country go to private schools, and universities must commit to widening participation as a condition of charging higher fees.

Labour are working on plans to get rid of private schools. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has supported an “Abolish Eton” motion, to be debated at the party’s conference in Brighton this weekend.

However, Labour’s current official idea is to make private schools start paying VAT. At the moment, independent schools are classed as charities, and do not have to pay the extra tax.

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