Breaking barriers

Many state and grammar schools across Yorkshire go to great lengths to assist talented students in applying for Oxford and Cambridge, but all-too-often children from this region are not competing on a level playing field with their peers.

By The Newsroom

Published 18th Feb 2019, 05:00 BST

Making Oxbridge more accessible to all is the aim of one young Yorkshireman (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

It is common for private school pupils and international students to pay for private tutoring on how to get through Oxbridge interviews and admissions exams in a way that is not available to all.

But 21-year-old Joe Seddon, from Morley, has come up with a way of giving young people from non fee-paying schools and less privileged backgrounds a better chance of making it through the admissions process by matching them up with current Oxbridge students and setting up free online tutorials.

His scheme has already assisted more than 50 state school pupils to be offered places after being launched last year. As Seddon himself puts it, his is a very simple idea but one that is already having a powerful effect.