Oxford fails to win more state pupils

Oxford University's decision to abandon its entrance exam appears to have failed in its aim of increasing the proportion of state school pupils admitted. The university last year dropped its entrance exam, partly because it was thought to be unfair to sixth formers at schools which could not afford to pay for thorough preparation. Instead, all applicants were offered places based on interviews, examples of schoolwork, short tests and predicted A-level grades.

But preliminary figures show that just 43 per cent of offers for places this autumn went to pupils from state schools compared to 47.5 per cent from fee-paying schools. Last autumn 43.6 of admissions were from state schools and 47.4 from fee-paying schools.