Top Universities Taking Fewer State School Pupils

A MAJOR row blew up today over the number of state school pupils getting into top universities.

New figures reveal that the number of students from feepaying schools has gone up while the proportion of candidates from comprehensive schools has dropped for the first time in five years.

There was a decline in state school entry at 16 out of 19 universities in the Russell Group, reversing the trend in admissions for the first time since Gordon Brown attacked Oxford’s “old school tie approach” over its rejection of state pupil Laura Spence.

The Government has set targets which mean three out of four students at the top institutions should come from state schools. But the figures show Oxford took 53.8 per cent of its students from state schools or colleges in 2003-04, down from 55.4 per cent the previous year.

Cambridge took 56.9per cent of new students from state schools in 2003-04, down from 57.6 per cent.

Teachers leaders called for the Government’s university admissions watchdog to sharpen its claws.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, said: “These figures suggest universities have got to do a lot more.”

The Independent Schools Council said today the targets were “absurd”.

General secretary Jonathan Shephard praised Oxbridge for resisting pressure to meet them by asking for lower A-level grades from comprehensive school candidates.

The targets are now based on the points each A-level grade is worth, rather than the actual grades themselves, so although Oxbridge requires a minimum of three As from applicants for most courses, the Higher education Statistics Agency translates it mean 360 points.

Mr Shephard said: “It is possible-for students to reach the 360- point target which the top universities are deemed by HESA to require by achieving, for instance, an A and three C grades.”

Yet fewer than a third of students who scored 360 points actually got the grades the university required, he said. Some London universities have high dropout rates.

The University of East London shed 26 per cent of its 2002 intake.