Yorkshire students miss out in race for Oxbridge

Private schools in the South-East dominate a list of the top 100 institutions who send most youngsters to the elite universities – while just three Yorkshire schools feature.

It has also emerged that in two of the region’s parliamentary seats – Barnsley East and Hull East – no more than five pupils even applied to go to one of the Oxbridge institutions last year, compared with 230 in the affluent London suburb of Richmond Park, and 62 in Skipton and Ripon.

Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart, chairman of the Commons education select committee, said it was a “real concern” so few Oxbridge students come from schools in the region.

“Our children are bright enough but clearly do not receive the support at home and at school that they should,” he said. “The current position is unacceptable and we all, collectively, need to do something about it.

“It isn’t good enough. Parents, schools and pupils need to do better. Northern pupils need to aim higher, work harder and be the best they can be. We can have no complaint. The solution lies in our own hands.”

A list of the 100 secondary schools sending most children to one of the Oxbridge institutions, which was placed in the House of Commons library, reveals 42 per cent of those taking GCSEs at North London Collegiate School ended up there. In all, 20 schools – 18 independent, two selective and all in the South East – saw at least one in five pupils going to Oxbridge.

Only three Yorkshire schools make it into the top 100 – Leeds Grammar School (14 per cent), Sheffield High School (11 per cent) and Wakefield Girls’ High School (nine per cent).

Separate figures show a massive divide across Yorkshire in the number of pupils applying last year to study at Oxbridge. Barnsley East and Hull East are among almost 30 constituencies across the country where five or fewer youngsters applied, while fewer than 10 applied in Hemsworth, Hull North, Hull West and Hessle, Leeds West, Sheffield South East and Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough. Aspiration is highest in Skipton and Ripon, while 57 from Sheffield Hallam applied.

The figures come amid a furious political row over Business Secretary Vince Cable’s decision to force through the appointment of Prof Les Ebdon as director of fair access despite opposition from Tory MPs concerned at his criticism of top universities for failing to widen their intake.

Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman warned there was a “deep cultural divide” and said many schools fail to instill pupils with the aspiration to succeed.

“It’s easy to blame Oxford or Cambridge colleges or elite universities but there’s a culture out there. In certain parts of the country, in many schools people are not given the impression that elite universities are for them.”

A spokesman for Oxford University said there is a far greater concentration of students taking A-levels in London and the South East, and results are better.

“Oxford does an enormous amount of recruitment and outreach work to attract the best applicants from all over the country; the limiting factor in admissions is the number of students achieving the grades necessary to make a competitive application, and the numbers applying to Oxford,” said a spokesman.

“Oxford does an enormous amount of work to encourage all students with the grades and ability to come to Oxford to make an application, regardless of where they come from.”