Revealed: This is what percentage of Oxbridge students actually went to private school in 2023

Oxford and Cambridge will probably never drop their posho reputation. Besides all the ancient traditions, the old stories of The Bullingdon Club and secret societies or the fact that practically the entire Tory cabinet is made up of Oxbridge grads, they’re also just super tough unis to get into.

If you asked anyone the stereotype of Oxbridge students, it would probably be siggy ring-wearing and bow-tie-owning Tories in training.

But how posh actually are Oxford students in 2023? The Times and Sunday Times’ Good University Guide revealed each UK university’s percentage of private, state and grammar school students to give us a ranking of the universities with the most private school students in 2023. And shock horror, neither Oxbridge nor Cambridge were actually top of the list.

So what percentage of Oxbridge students actually went to private school in 2023?

Well, in 2023, 28.2 per cent of Cambridge students are privately educated, leaving the other 71.8 per cent of students coming from a state school or grammar school. This is a decrease from last year when 30 per cent of Cambridge students went to private schools.

It might top Cambridge in most of the rankings but The University of Oxford also has a higher percentage of students who come from private schools. This year, 31.4 per cent of  Oxford students come from a private school leaving 68.6 per cent of students state or grammar school educated.

Unlike Cambridge where percentages have continued to decrease, this has actually gone up a small 0.1 per cent from last year when 31.3 per cent of students went to private school.

Obviously, this number had dropped massively over the years. In the 1960s, 66 per cent of all Oxbridge students went to a fee-paying school. But when only seven per cent of the school-age population go to private schools, this is obviously still a lot higher than what is proportional.

Although both Oxford and Cambridge do have that reputation of being stuffed full of Barnabys and Allegras whose mummy and daddy forked out £64k a year for the most expensive private school, it is actually the Royal Agricultural University which has the highest number of private school students at 39.5 per cent, closely followed by Durham University at 39.1 per cent.

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