Jayne Dowle: Why Oxbridge's glittering prizes don't shine so brightly

At the time, high on a mixture of excitement and disbelief, I didn't realise what a big deal this was. I do now. I know just how few people like me, from a state school and a working-class background, have made that same journey down the motorway. The Government has spent hundreds of millions of pounds on a new campaign to get more state school entrants into Oxbridge and other "elite" universities. But Oxford University's annual admissions statistics show that only 53.9 per cent of undergraduates who started their degrees last autumn were from state schools, a figure down 1.5 per cent from 2008.

When you consider how many kids go to state schools, and how many are privately-educated, then your first reaction is likely to be, "Well, that's not fair". You can see why the Government is keen to even up the numbers. In a supposed meritocracy, it doesn't look good, does it?

But it is time to explode a few myths. We don't live in an ideal world.

Even Lord Patten, the Chancellor of Oxford University, made a speech the other week attacking "social engineering" and criticised those who would turn away candidates from public schools in favour of those whose parents had not paid for their education. He wants the best, and it is a sad fact that many of our state schools might be incapable of providing them.

Social mobility has gone down, not up these past 20 years. The decline of grammar schools hasn't helped one bit. I sometimes think it could be even more difficult now for a working-class, state school kid to get into Oxbridge than it was when I went. For a start, I sat the entrance exam, which was dropped for favouring rich kids who could be "coached" to provide smart answers. But I have always argued that it actually benefited kids like me. My O-levels were rubbish, thanks to my failing comprehensive, and I didn't even pass maths first time. It soon became evident that if I shone, I shone at only a couple of things – English and history.

That exam gave me the chance to prove my very own unique potential. These days, when so many young people are clocking up three and four As at A-level, it must make it very difficult for admissions tutors to

make their choice.

And let's talk hard cash. I find it totally inconceivable that a government which introduced tuition fees – and threatens to back increases, especially at the "elite" institutions – can so publicly wring its hands over the lack of state school pupils applying to the grander universities. Don't they realise that before we even get on to the subject of intellect and ability, pure economics gets in the way?

Put simply, it is cripplingly expensive to leave home and study in university towns such as Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol or Edinburgh. On top of the tuition fees, the cost of living is a lot higher than it is in say, Huddersfield. If you're a clever kid from Yorkshire, terrified of leaving university drowning in debt, what are you going to do? Hock yourself up to the eyeballs so you can go and live in Cambridge for three years, or apply to Leeds or Sheffield and live at home? I'm sorry if this sounds like the promise of a generation is being sacrificed for the sake of an overdraft, but that's the way it is. I know. I teach university students, and I see them struggling to survive, juggling a degree with shifts at Primark.

Remember Tony Blair's pledge to get 50 per cent of all young people a degree? The expansion of university provision has not only seen a massive influx in student numbers, but it has also provided them with a much wider choice about where and what they can study.

Young people today are more clued-up than we ever were. They know about consumer choice, and they don't just stick a pin in the UCAS form and hope for the best.

I'm not that cynical though. I've been persuading other people like me to apply to Oxbridge since I was 18, because like any experience, it can transform your life.

First this was through "Target Schools", a student initiative which saw me visiting local schools to explain what Oxford was all about. That was pretty mind-blowing for kids who hadn't even considered A-levels. And now I act as an informal mentor to young people at my local sixth- form college.

Several went for Oxbridge interviews last year, but none was successful. I just hope their experience doesn't put others off

applying. But if it does, then let's get a bit of perspective. Just how much is that glittering prize really worth? Maybe, just maybe, it isn't so shiny any more.