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Camilla Turner quoted Sir Peter Lampl in her Daily Telegraph report on HESA data on university access.
Oxford University accepts fewer state school students – bucking the national trend – as critics say that unconscious bias of admission tutors continues to hinder progress.
While universities across the country have increased the proportion undergraduates who are state educated, Oxford’s proportion has decreased, official figures show.
Oxford, which has the lowest proportion of state educated students in the country – excluding small specialist colleges – has seen a drop in entrants from this background.
Of its 2015/16 intake, 55.7per cent were from state schools and colleges, compared to 57.7 per cent five years ago in 2011/12.
In contrast, the proportion of state sector entrants at Cambridge University had risen from 54 per cent to about 62 per cent in a decade. It now has fewer privately educated students than universities such as Bristol, Durham and St Andrews.
Data released by Higher Education Statistics Agency shows overall, 89.9 per cent of UK young, full-time undergraduates starting courses at British universities in 2015/16 were educated in the state sector, up from 88.9 per cent five years ago.
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Sir Peter Lampl, executive chairman of the Sutton Trust said the figures provide “further worrying evidence of the substantial access gaps that still exist at our universities, especially at our top universities”.
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