Cambridge University admits more students from public schools than from private schools for the first time ever, despite denials of “social engineering” by admissions officials.
The 800-year-old college is in the center of a discrimination controversy after charges that its admissions policy disadvantages students from private schools.
More than 20,000 applicants will learn if they will be summoned to an interview the week after next in an effort to secure one of 3,700 available undergraduate spots.
The Telegraph’s Freedom of Information request revealed that private school students are less likely to be given a university place than their state school colleagues.
At the beginning of this academic year, the acceptance rate for state school students was 19.9 percent, compared to 18.8 percent for fee-paying students.
Over the past decade, Oxford University has also witnessed the gap between the two institutions narrow.
In 2021, 18.3% of public school students gained admission to Oxford University, compared to 20% of private school students.
Those attending the top 50 private schools, such as Eton College, Harrow School, and Winchester College, have seen their odds of earning an Oxbridge offer fall by a third over the past five years, according to the Telegraph.
However, admissions officials were obliged to refute allegations of “social engineering.”
The consultant from Surrey stated, “My son and his classmates worked extremely hard, but his four A*s do not appear to be as valuable as two A*s and an A from a student in a public school.”
The parent, who referred to it as “social engineering,” stated that their son had earned A*s in mathematics, economics, chemistry, and politics, and wished to study Human, Social, and Political Sciences at Cambridge, but was refused during a Zoom interview.
At Brampton Manor, a selective state sixth form in Newham, east London, students with three A*s or two A*s and one A gained coveted seats on the same Cambridge course.
The parent said that he believed his son was being “punished” for having attended a public school and queried, “At what point does social mobility cease?”
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According to the Telegraph, an admissions officer at Cambridge explained to the parent of the Surrey youngster that they “reject many strong students who would do well at Cambridge.”
In addition to denying claims of social engineering, they stated, “There is no ideal system for making decisions” and that “the student with less impressive achievements on paper is not necessarily less capable than the student with excellent outcomes on paper.”
In the five years leading up to 2021, the number of candidates to Cambridge and Oxford universities increased by 31%, to 47,133.