Industry News
Independent school pupils favourites for Oxbridge places
Posted on 18th February 2008
The percentage of pupils from the private school sector at Britain's top two universities is expected to grow again this year.
Currently only 53 per cent of Oxford undergraduates attended state schools while 56 per cent of students starting university at Cambridge last year were from a state school background, down from 58 per cent the year before, according to the Guardian.
Both universities have come under pressure to accept more students from the state school sector onto its courses, particularly from education minister Bill Rammel.
However the prestigious institutions have expressed concern in the past about the academic inadequacies of the subjects studied at A-level and GCSE in state schools.
A spokesperson for Oxford University asked: "Is it that there are state school students with three As at A-level who aren't applying to us, or is it that they aren't doing the A-levels we require for our courses?"
The Telegraph reported earlier this month that teenagers at private schools are more inclined to study "tough" subjects, with independent school pupils four times more likely to take three sciences at GCSE than their contemporaries in the state school sector