As university admissions have become increasingly obsessed with equal outcomes, many parents fear a kind of reverse discrimination. They worry that a Ucas form bearing the name of an independent school may be bad news for an Oxbridge application. There’s evidence to suggest they’re right. Private-school pupils who transfer to state education after their GCSEs are up to a third more likely to be admitted to Cambridge. Children who remained at private school for A-levels had an acceptance rate of 19 per cent, compared with 25 per cent for those who moved to a grammar school or state sixth form college.
Given the assumed prejudice against private school applicants, a recent move by one Cambridge college has surprised many. After decades of commitment to various diversity and equality schemes, fellows at Trinity Hall approved a ‘targeted recruitment’ strategy to encourage applications from some of the best independent schools in England.
Marcus Tomalin, Trinity Hall’s director of admissions, argued that when it comes to certain subjects, such as languages, music and classics, ‘the best students from such schools arrive at Cambridge with expertise and interests that align well with the intellectual demands’. It approached 50 schools, including St Paul’s Girls, Eton and Winchester.
These are courses which have always seen higher rates of applications and admissions from independent schools. In 2021, Oxford noted that 18.8 per cent of independent applications were for their five least popular subjects (classics, music, modern languages, chemistry and English) compared with 13 per cent of state applications. Classics admitted just 36 per cent of students from state schools between 2018 and 2020, while modern languages took just over half.
The reason Trinity Hall might want to target private schools is because certain subjects invariably rely on specialist teaching at a secondary level. If the college wishes to climb the Cambridge rankings, it helps to have pupils who have studied Latin or French, for example, to a high standard. While Trinity Hall made headlines, its strategy is far from the only example of a close relationship between an independent school and an Oxbridge college. Consider Westminster School, which secured 96 Oxbridge offers for 2025, the most in the country. Its students tell me the school has Oxbridge alumni in almost every department. They take mock admissions tests and have practice interviews marked by those who attended their target college (and who may even know people there). The school is regarded as the best in the country at preparing students for Oxbridge admissions.
It has a close historic relationship with Christ Church, Oxford and Trinity College, Cambridge, dating back to funds set aside in 1561 by Elizabeth I. Until 2018, the master of Trinity College was automatically a governor of Westminster. Between 2018 and 2020, 22 Westminster students received offers to study at Trinity College (more successful applications to one than most schools get to both Oxford and Cambridge). Perhaps surprisingly, given the college’s extensive outreach work, Trinity College has a financial award reserved for students from Westminster, dating back to a 1690 fund. Meanwhile at Eton, which in 2024 won 51 Oxbridge offers, the board of governors until last year had to have at least one fellow from both an Oxford and Cambridge college.
There are, however, programmes to encourage less privileged young people to apply. St John’s College, Oxford runs an ‘Inspire Programme’ to encourage pupils ‘to be confident in making well-founded applications to a top university like Oxford’. Participation is limited to those from non-selective state schools in the college’s ‘linked regions’. Even if their students are not eligible, England’s top independent schools provide external advisers. In 2019, Dr James Bedford, director of Lumina at Harrow School, supported the programme. Harrow hosts mentoring workshops for young people from deprived backgrounds to help them get into Oxbridge. In 2024, it sent six students to Oxford and five to Cambridge.
Is the tide turning? At Oxford the proportion of independent school admissions has increased slightly since 2020 (its lowest point in recent years) to 33.8 per cent in 2024. At Cambridge, the corresponding figure grew to 29 per cent.
Students take mock admissions tests and have interviews marked by those who attended their target college
Trinity Hall justified its ‘targeted recruitment’ strategy on the basis of fears about ‘reverse discrimination’ against privately educated pupils. Since the public outcry over the case of Laura Spence in 2000 – when a girl from a state comprehensive in Tyneside with five As predicted at A-level was denied a place to study medicine from Magdalen College, Oxford – there has been huge pressure on top universities to take fewer students from fee-paying schools.
There has been widespread speculation that Durham, which now sits above Oxford and Cambridge in some university rankings, has benefited from the trend, by refusing to discriminate against clever candidates from independent schools. In 2024, 39.1 per cent of its students were from fee-paying schools, the highest of any mainstream university.
When many Oxbridge colleges make noises about diversity schemes, well-informed private school pupils are more likely to apply to those colleges that stick to a meritocratic interview process. The best independent schools have worked hard to develop informal links with both universities. They hire teachers, headmasters and governors who attended or worked at a college. They develop mock interview schemes and host summer schools taught by Oxbridge academics (both former and current).
As parents work to shield their children from a biased system, it is the schools that are best at fostering these relationships which will prove the most desirable.
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