Snobby Oxford way below Cambridge in state school admissions

The number of state school applicants admitted to Oxford fell by 40 between 2011-12 and 2012-13 according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa).

Conversely, Cambridge admitted 45 more students from state schools in the same timespan, increasing the proportion of state school students admitted from 57.7% to 63%.

This means that the University of Bristol now has a higher proportion of privately educated students than Cambridge, whilst Oxford has the lowest proportion of state school entrants in the entire country.

I’m  terribly welcome at Oxford

The continual decrease in state school admittance is all the more remarkable following two recent surveys which reveal that private school pupils are consistently outperformed at university by state school students who received the same A-Level grades.

Perhaps Cambridge’s more open-minded approach to student selection explains its consistent dominance over Oxford in university league tables in recent years.

Hesa has also published statistics showing that the proportion of university students coming from state schools has reached an all-time high, perhaps a damning indictment of Oxford’s failure to catch up with the onward march of progress.

Even I can go to Cambridge

These figures elicited a warm response from Lee Ebdon, director of Fair Access, who said:

“This means we’re moving closer to a student body that reflects the wider population rather than just those who were born into a particular social group”.

Crucially the figures also demonstrate that the increased tuition fees have not deterred people from low-income backgrounds from applying to university.