Squeeze on middle class at Oxbridge

UNIVERSITIES have agreed to meet a five-year target to increase the number of disadvantaged pupils taking up degree places.

But the move by the Office for Students has prompted fears among some schools of ‘class discrimination’ against pupils from more affluent families.

An analysis by the OfS suggests there should be 6,500 more students from poorer backgrounds at top universities by 2025. Oxford and Cambridge, however, have refused to expand their total undergraduate numbers, meaning fewer places for better-off pupils.

Chris Milward of the OfS admitted: ‘Inevitably in Oxbridge, if they don’t grow, then the groups who are very highly represented in those universities will be less represented at the end of this, there is no doubt about that.’ He justified the move by saying it was important to recognise ‘talent from all backgrounds’.

Mike Buchanan of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, which represents 296 independent schools, said: ‘Care is needed in starting actively to discriminate against individual young people on the basis of the class they were born into. The country needs all its young people to reach their potential if we are to create a bright new future for Britain post-Brexit.

‘We urge the Government to enable universities and colleges to expand to take as many truly suitable students as necessary, rather than rob some students of a future to award it to others.’