THERE have been calls to widen the access of Oxbridge to Northern areas – as figures show the region is missing out on places at the two universities.

Figures from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills show that Redcar, South Tyneside and Cleveland sent some of the lowest numbers of students in the country to Oxford and Cambridge.

Ten local education authority areas nationally had just five or fewer pupils gaining places over three years. While the universities’ intake was dominated by students from the home counties, with Surrey sending 600 students, Hertfordshire 695, Kent 540, Oxfordshire 505 and Hampshire 435.

Over the same period, nationally, just 145 pupils in receipt of free school meals were accepted at the two elite institutions.

Speaking in the Sunday Express, Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Education Endowment Foundation said it was “shocking” to see such big differences and called for a concerted effort to widen access to Oxbridge to areas such as the North and coastal areas.

The news comes as the Prime Minister today (Sunday, January 31) announced plans to force all universities to publish statistics on admissions by gender, class and ethnic background.

Prime Minister David Cameron said; “Under the duty, which will be introduced in legislation, wide-ranging data will be published showing the ethnic, gender and socio-economic breakdown for applications, entry, and retention in key disciplines at all higher education institutions.

"Analysing this data will help tackle one of the biggest challenges currently in higher education: low entry and poor retention among black groups and white working class boys.”