Number of low income students at Oxbridge falls

OXFORD and Cambridge have seen their proportion of disadvantaged students drop over the past decade, despite efforts to boost social mobility.

They admitted a smaller proportion of poorer students last year than every other UK university, a report has shown.

Around one in ten of those starting a degree at Oxbridge in 2014/15 were from poorer backgrounds – compared with a UK average of more than one in three. However, both have seen a rise in the proportion of entrants from state schools since 2004.

The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, come after numerous outreach programmes by both universities to encourage bright children from deprived backgrounds to apply. They showed that in 2004/05, disadvantaged students made up 12.3 per cent of Oxford entrants. By 2014/15 this had fallen to 10 per cent. Over the same period, Cambridge saw a fall from 12.4 per cent to 10.2 per cent.

Yesterday Nick Hillman, of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: ‘Too little is spent on finding the kids with the greatest potential who are currently under the radar.’

A spokesman for Oxford said it has its own targets with the Office for Fair Access, which ‘do not include targets by school type or self-reported socio-economic class. Measured against these categories we have shown consistent improvement.’