Oxbridge should not discriminate against private school pupils because they get more firsts, head says

Oxbridge must not discriminate against private school students because they get more first class degrees, a leading headteacher has said.

There is a “lazy assumption” that students from privileged backgrounds are “talking their way in” to the country’s two leading universities and do not deserve their place, according to Richard Cairns, head of the £42,000-a-year Brighton College.

But this is not the case, he argued, since a higher proportion of undergraduates from private schools get top degrees than those from state schools.

New data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa) reveals that over the past four years, privately educated pupils have been more likely to graduate with a first class degree from Oxford or Cambrigde than their peers who went to state schools.

Between 2016/17 and 2019/20, just over a third (36 per cent) of state educated students graduated from Cambridge with a first, compared to 43 per cent of privately educated pupils.

Meanwhile over the same period of time in Oxford, 37 per cent of state school students were awarded a first compared to 39 per cent of their private school counterparts.

“There is a lazy assumption that well-spoken confident people from a certain type of school are talking their way into Oxbridge, then sitting back and getting a 2.2,” Mr Cairns said.

“That simply isn’t happening. Independent schools are providing some superb youngsters for the universities. To try and reduce those numbers when it is clear they are doing wonderful things would be a mistake.”

Oxford and Cambridge have come under pressure from the higher education regulator to boost the diversity of their undergraduate intake.

Oxford has increased its state school intake from 55.6 per cent in 2015 to 68.7 per cent this year, while Cambridge has gone from 62.3 per cent to 70 per cent over the same period.

Mr Cairns, who obtained the data from Hesa, said: “If politicians continue to put pressure on these two universities to admit fewer independent schools out of a misguided belief that admissions officers discriminate against state school applicants, Oxford and Cambridge will lose out on a number of brilliant students.”

He warned that bright students from private schools will take up places at Ivy League universities in the United States if they are unfairly rejected from Oxbridge, adding that this could lead to a “worrying brain drain from the UK.”

Both Oxford and Cambridge have set ambitious targets to further increase their intake of students from poor households.

Oxford has pledged to cut the ratio of students from the wealthiest areas of the country to those from the most deprived from around 15 to one to eight to one by 2025.

Meanwhile, Cambridge has committed to cutting the ratio from around 14 to one to around 6.7 to one by 2025. Mr Cairns said that he is in favour of leading universities admitting more students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“But what this data shows is that Oxford and Cambridge would be also be intellectually much poorer without its independently educated pupils,” he said.

“And should these highly able independent school pupils lose faith in Oxbridge admissions because of arbitrary targets set by the regulator, they would be made very welcome by Yale, Harvard and Stanford.”

An Oxford University spokesman said: "We have put huge effort into assessing applicants on their individual merits and building a fair admissions process that identifies talent irrespective of background or circumstance.

"This is reflected in our students’ consistently high levels of achievement in their degrees, and in their career destinations. Our research shows that any socio-economic attainment gap reduces as students get closer to graduation, and strongly indicates that the University’s approach to addressing prior educational disparities is working overtime."

Cambridge University said they are committed to "achieving an intake that is reflective of UK society and providing equality of educational opportunity".

A spokesman said: "Our objectives are to admit a student body in which no group is under-represented, and to eliminate any gaps between such groups in continuation, attainment and progression. We admit students on individual merit, regardless of background.”