Record state school offers at Oxford

State school pupils receive 58.5% of offers for 2011 admissions Oxford is on course to have the highest ever proportion of state school pupils in its undergraduate intake this autumn, publishing figures on Friday showing that just 41.5% of offers were made to private school candidates. State school pupils received 58.5% of offers. Based on previous years, the proportion of state school pupils accepted is likely to be around 1% lower than this figure. The increased share of offers reflects a rise in applications from state-educated children, which reached 64.3% for entry this autumn. Universities in England have been told they could be stripped of the right to charge higher fees if they fail to attract a wider mix of students including state school pupils, ethnic minorities and teenagers from areas with no tradition of going on to higher education. The sharpest disparity between state and private school success is at Oxford, where nearly 47% of the intake are privately educated. But 13 of the 16 English Russell Group universities are below existing benchmarks. The university’s director of undergraduate admissions, Mike Nicholson, said: “We are pleased that figures for 2010 and preliminary offer figures for 2011 show the proportion of state students gradually rising. We believe this shows the great amount of effort and energy we have put into our outreach work is paying off.” As a whole, applications to Oxford rose to a record high of 17,300 for 2011 entry. Applications from state school candidates have increased by 73% over the past decade compared with a 31% rise from the private school pupils who have traditionally dominated Oxbridge. The university also published figures on Friday for admissions in the current academic year, which showed that seven black Caribbean students were accepted out of 40 who applied. In autumn 2009, just one black Caribbean student was accepted out of 35. The admissions figures for 2010 entry show that 55.4% of Oxford’s British undergraduate intake was state-educated. Nearly a quarter went to comprehensive schools, compared with less than 20% for the year starting in autumn 2009. Oxford argues that poor attainment at school level presents a major challenge to its aspiration to admit the best candidates, pointing out that independent school students make up a third of all those getting 3 As at A-level. The university also says the focus on the type of school obscures the fact that some poor children are privately educated. Oxford published a breakdown of figures for 2009/10, which showed that 935 students came from families with household incomes below £16,190, the earnings threshold for free school meals. Of these, 295 had been educated in private schools. Nicholson said: “Household income is one important measure, and it does not correlate in an obvious way with school type. “Our figures show that nearly one in ten of our students come from households in the lowest income bracket. Those students went to a range of school types, confirming that state/independent does not equal poor/rich.” Nicholson contrasted this statistic with figures based on pupils who received free school meals. Less than 1% of the intake at the most selective universities, including Oxbridge, were pupils on free school meals, according to a study by the charity the Sutton Trust . He said: “There are very many more students from low-income backgrounds than there are students who were on free school meals – not everyone on the lowest incomes is eligible, and not everyone takes them up.” The breakdown of household income for 2009/10 show that nearly 73% of Oxford’s intake that year were students from households with an income above £50,000. This is the cut-off point for a government maintenance grant. The latest admissions figures show high success rates for candidates who attended Oxford’s summer school for state school pupils. More than 40% of summer school students received offers – a success rate nearly double that of all applicants. University of Oxford Access to university Higher education Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk

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