Friday, December 07, 2018

Educating the Elite

Oxford and Cambridge are being accused of being so socially exclusive that they recruit more students from eight top schools than almost 3,000 other English state schools put together.

Sutton Trust social mobility charity founder Sir Peter Lampl said all young people needed a "fair chance".

The study examined Oxford and Cambridge admissions data between 2015 and 2017 and found a handful of schools, mostly private, disproportionately dominating the number of places awarded. Pupils from eight schools filled 1,310 Oxbridge places over three years, compared with 1,220 from 2,900 other schools which accounted for about three-quarters of secondary schools.
The research also found that high achieving independent school pupils were twice as likely as state school pupils to apply to Oxford and Cambridge, even with the same ability and predicted grades.
The report shows the imbalance in admissions:
  • 7% of all UK pupils attend private schools
  • 18% of those taking A-levels are at private school
  • 34% of Oxbridge applications are from private school
  • 42% of Oxbridge places go to private school pupils

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