Oxford University’s outgoing vice-chancellor Louise Richardson says that an increasing number of state-school pupils winning places at Oxford is thanks to their own effort and greater ambition rather than the university’s policies. Richardson dismissed claims that Oxbridge is biased against applications from privately educated students and said more “smart students” are applying from the state sector and creating greater competition, causing those “who might historically have expected to get in” to publicly complain when they miss out. Richardson said she is proud of the sharp increase in state-educated UK students that Oxford now admits, as well as the smaller but significant increases in the numbers from ethnic minority or disadvantaged backgrounds. She noted: “We’ve gone from 56% state-school entrants to 68%. We’ve gone from 10% of kids from the most deprived backgrounds to 23%, with a commitment to hit 25% next year. The number of Black British students was at a low base but we’ve more than doubled it. And our [black and minority ethnic] students are now at 25%.”
Source: The Guardian (pressreader.com)
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