Oxbridge 'is still biased'

Private schools are set to tighten their hold on Oxbridge places this year, an Evening Standard survey reveals today.

The findings show Oxford and Cambridge are defying government demands for them to give most places to teenagers from state schools. Nearly half of private school pupils who applied to Oxbridge were offered a place, compared with a third from the state sector.

Evening Standard asked leading state and private schools in and around London how many applications they made to the two universities this year and how many resulted in offers of places conditional on getting certain A-level grades. Eton College and Westminster were among the schools which declined to supply figures.

The number of applications from fee-paying schools that responded fell from 641 to 610 this year. The number from state schools was virtually unchanged at 431, down from 433.

But with most of the admissions process completed, the private schools' "hit rate" - the proportion of applicants who were offered a place at Oxbridge - was 47 per cent this year, up from 42.9. The state schools saw their hit rate increase by a more modest 1.3 percentage points to 34.1 per cent.

The figures indicate that admissions tutors are guarding their independence. Last October, the Higher Education Statistics Agency told Oxford it should aim to increase the proportion of state-educated students from 55.4 to 77.2 per cent. Cambridge's target jumped from 68 per cent to 76.8 per cent.

Lord Patten, Chancellor of Oxford University, warned the institution would go private unless ministers stopped interfering.

But none of the headteachers spoken to in the survey said they had detected evidence of deliberate discrimination. Five of the 13 private schools saw their hit rate for both universities increase.

Three saw hit rates decline at both, and the picture was mixed for the rest. Two of the 13 state schools boosted their hit rate at both universities.

Martin Stephen, high master of St Paul's in Barnes, said: "Oxford and Cambridge take more care over their entry, and it shows in terms of the fairness of their decisions."

Elizabeth Allen, head of Newstead Wood in Orpington, the most successful state school for Oxbridge this year, praised both universities for giving detailed explanations for decisions. But she hinted state schools could have fallen even further behind without the targets. "I think a school like Newstead Wood has benefited from the imposition of more state school places," she said.

The independent sector has more resources to coach their candidates but Mrs Allen said: "It seems as if the whole selection process is now looking at the student, rather than the preparation programme."