Oxbridge not reaching out to region's schools (From The Northern Echo)

Oxbridge not reaching out to region's schools

8:00am Friday 17th February 2012 in News By Rob Merrick

NO more than five young people applied to Oxford or Cambridge universities last year from some North-East constituencies, figures reveal.

Applications from Easington and from Washington and Sunderland West were so low that officials refused to reveal the actual number, to avoid identifying the people involved – recording it as “five or fewer” instead.

The elite Oxbridge universities also attracted little interest in the Westminster seats of Middlesbrough (seven applications), Houghton and Sunderland South (nine) and Redcar (11).

In stark contrast, many more bids came from constituencies in North Yorkshire, including Skipton and Ripon (62), Harrogate and Knaresborough (56), Thirsk and Malton (47) and Richmond (46).

And several hundred applications were made from leafy parts of the South, such as Oxford West and Abingdon (232), Richmond Park (230) and Cambridge (208).

The statistics, released to MPs, triggered a furious row, as Easington MP Grahame Morris accused Oxford and Cambridge of half-hearted attempts to open their doors to young people in his constituency.

In 2009-10, only 59.3 per cent of undergraduates starting at Cambridge were from state schools, and only 54.3 per cent at Oxford – far short of official benchmarks at both of about 70 per cent.

Meanwhile, five schools – including Westminster, Eton and St Paul’s – send more pupils to Oxbridge between them than 2,000 other schools and colleges across the UK.

Such figures have been seized on by the Conservatives as a damning indictment of Labour’s broken promises on opening up top universities to to all, regardless of their background.

But Mr Morris turned his fire on the coalition for axeing the £78m Aim Higher scheme for schools and universities, which encouraged pupils from less-advantaged backgrounds to apply.

And he said: “I don’t think Oxford and Cambridge reach out to areas like mine. They look to the affluent South- East and to people that will go on to contribute funding to their colleges.

“As a result, people feel they are excluded from Oxford and Cambridge – even the most talented individuals.”

But an Oxford University spokeswoman said the criticism ignored the “grim figure”

that only five or six Easington students achieved 5A* or better at GCSE each year.

Pointing out that it spent £2.5m a year holding 1,500 “outreach” events, she added: “Oxford can, and does, encourage anyone with the ability and potential to succeed here to apply.

“But with so few people in some areas achieving at the level required for Oxford, it is not surprising there are so few applicants.”

And Cambridge pointed to an upcoming event – at St James’ Park, in Newcastle, on Wednesday, March 28 – as evidence that it is trying to attract “the ablest and bestqualified from every background and every part of the UK”.

Meanwhile, there are fears that the stark class divide at Oxbridge will widen further after annual student fees treble to as high as £9,000, from October.