The University of Cambridge will drop its state school admissions target, according to Varsity.
In an online open meeting, university representatives said that “there’s no proposal to have a formal target against school type” for its future Access and Participation Plan (APP).
However, they said the university would still take applicants’ schools into account.
Cambridge had beaten its targets from the previous five-year access plan by increasing state school numbers to 69.1 per cent. The number of new students from state schools rose to just under 72.9 per cent in 2022-23 (and an acceptance of 27.1 per cent from independent schools).
In its previous access plan for 2020-2025, the university said that state school-educated pupils should make up 69.1 per cent of the cohort by 2024-2025.
Cambridge is working on a new access plan for the 2025-26 to 2028-29 academic years.
Martin Thompson, director of undergraduate admissions, said in the online meeting that there would be no formal target for school type in the plan.
This year’s plan focuses on students from deprived socio-economic backgrounds; underrepresented areas of the UK (such as the North West, West Midlands, South West and Wales); underrepresented ethnicities; and those eligible for free school meals.
A university representative told the Daily Telegraph: “We will continue to take into account an applicant’s schooling, particularly if they come from a school that has not seen many applications to Cambridge. Other socio-economic factors will also be considered in the application process to indicate disadvantage of opportunity, as occurs at present.
“The APP is being drafted at the moment and subject to further discussion around the collegiate University. Consideration of an applicant’s school type in isolation is not a factor that the Office for Students would expect to see as a specific target in the access and participation plan, however.”
Cambridge recently came under fire for allegedly discriminating against privately educated white men, according to Buckingham University’s vice-chancellor.
The Times reported that Professor James Tooley said the university was actively trying to reduce the number of “wealthier white males”.
“Cambridge famously, explicitly, is reducing the numbers of what you might call wealthier white males. They're increasing the number of ethnic minority males and females, and females in general, and are therefore reducing the number of white males,” he said.
