13th April 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Oxford and Cambridge Universities have failed to meet targets for the number of state school students they accept the BBC has reported. Hesa (Higher Education Statistics Agency) showed that the proportion of state school pupils starting an undergraduate degree at Oxford was 54.3% in 2009-2010. This is down from 54.7% in the previous year. The intake at Cambridge stayed at 59.3%. Oxford has claimed that this year (2010-2011) the figure is up at 55.4%.
Both universities missed the benchmark set by Hesa, 67.3% for Oxford and 68.1% for Cambridge, and, in light of the recent tuition fee changes, some people are worried that neither university has moved closer to these benchmark figures. The concern is that, faced with £9,000 a year tuition fees, many state school students and students from poorer backgrounds will opt not to attend university when previously they would have.
Both Oxbridge universities have announced increases to the funding for their access schemes, and hope to move closer to their respective Hesa targets over the next few years. They are also developing new systems for financial support once a student arrives at Oxbridge, to allay any fears about not having enough money to attend.
Currently 88.4% of undergraduates in the UK are from state schools, but Dr. Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group of universities, said that the key is not persuading Oxbridge to accept more state school pupils, but realising that the relatively low proportion of state school students at Oxbridge is due to state school students not achieving good enough grades.