Private schools 'should coach state pupils for Oxbridge interviews'

Private schools should coach bright state sixth-formers in how to pass Oxbridge interviews, the Chancellor of Oxford University said today.

Lord Patten warned there was "no chance" of Oxford taking more state school students while privately educated pupils continue to perform far better in interviews and exams.

He condemned "Left-wing politicians" for taking "cheap shots" at Oxford and Cambridge when the real problem lay with the failing state education system. In a veiled warning to ministers, Lord Patten said he did not want Oxford to be "driven" to wash its hands of government funding in order to preserve its independence.

But he said tuition fees must rise above the current £3,000-a-year limit if top universities were to remain viable.

The former Governor of Hong Kong and Tory Cabinet minister was speaking at a time of increased friction between the Government and Oxbridge.

Both elite institutions have clashed with Universities Secretary John Denham in recent weeks over political pressure to increase the number of students they take from state school backgrounds.

Speaking to the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference of independent school heads in London, Lord Patten said nowhere was the gap between the quality of state education and private schooling wider than in Britain. Many parents sent their children to private schools "to purchase what they reckon is a better education, with smaller classes, more teachers, less disruptive children, a broader curriculum, more facilities, better results".

He said that, while such a gap exists, there was "no chance whatsoever of meeting the socio-economic targets set by agents of government. It is as simple as that." But he added that independent-schools could help by coaching state school pupils in interview technique - often a stumbling block for teenagers from comprehensives.

He said: "Undoubtedly, interviewing techniques and confidence often tell against maintained sector entrants. We run courses and so on to help with this. I know that some of your members invite local state schools for training in these techniques with your own pupils.

"That seems to me a good initiative, valuable all round, not least for those you are teaching."

Lord Patten attacked the "populist venom" that was directed at Oxford and Cambridge over the fact that both universities took more than four out of 10 students from private schools, which educated just seven per cent of pupils. But universities were not "local social security offices", he said.

Oxford's Chancellor warned that middle-class families should be prepared to pay higher tuition fees to fund universities in future.

"Can there be a middle-class objection to higher fees? It is surely a mad world in which parents are prepared to shell out tens of thousands of pounds to put their children through private schools to get them into universities, and then object to them paying a tuition fee of more than £3,000 when they are there.

"The Government should relax the present fee cap, especially if it is not going to increase public subsidy."