“Ah, so you’re going to university in London!” was a phrase I heard more than once from my Scottish peers after telling them that I was going to Cambridge. Following the initial amusement, the truth contained within this exclamation dawned on me. To many of us, Cambridge feels profoundly foreign.

In 2023, Scotland had the lowest Cambridge acceptance rate of any UK region, at just 14.1% compared to the South East’s 23.1%. Only 45 students were admitted to the University from the entirety of Scotland, in contrast to 844 from Greater London. This ugly reading triggers an uncomfortable question of blame. Is the University of Cambridge callously rejecting Scots left, right, and centre? Or are Scots, sequestered away in a northern utopia of free tuition fees and the purported best university in the UK, rejecting Cambridge? As with many unhappy relationships, both parties have things to answer for. What is crucial is that the casualties of this dysfunctional union, the bright Scottish students missing out on a Cambridge education are not forgotten.

“My inner-city state school in Glasgow defied the odds with its 100% success rate for Oxbridge applications in my year; mine was the only one”

From Cambridge, Scotland feels truly remote. The long journey home at the end of each term takes the form of planes, trains and automobiles. And with my quiet occupancy of my college’s overseas students’ storage, thanks to my wonderfully supportive Scottish tutor, I leave feeling acutely provincial.

This geographical deterrent is an inevitable reality, yet its impact appears to be less profound for English students flocking in droves to Scottish universities. The provinciality, I think, stems more from our cultural distance. If I had a penny for every time I have had to explain Scottish exams to someone at Cambridge (very much not excluding academics), I might almost be able to buy a train ticket home! Attempts to convince my peers that Scottish Advanced Highers are technically more difficult than A-Levels have been met with sneers, and repeatedly explaining why I speak the way I do grew tiresome a couple of days into Freshers’ Week. Cambridge should do more to welcome Scottish applicants, but its shortcomings stem from ignorance rather than malice. It is also inarguable that many of these challenges torment students from other regions of the UK, as well as international students. Therefore, failings originating in Scotland are also letting us down.

The elephant in the room is, of course, free tuition fees for Scottish students. This is undeniably one of the most crucial reasons Scottish students don’t apply to top English universities. Yet even this seemingly obvious factor requires greater dissection. Until my penultimate year of school, I had never considered Oxbridge. This was largely because tuition fees existed in England, the specifics of which I was taught nothing about, while Scottish universities were ‘free’. Cambridge’s expense was an abstract Goliath, rendering it the preserve of the poshest of the posh, and at no point did anyone correct me.

“Scotland’s education system simply does not translate to the rest of the country”

There is also the matter of the Scottish exam system. Rather than three A-Levels, Scottish students aim to take five Highers in their penultimate school year, using these to apply to Scottish universities. Though essential for Oxbridge, Advanced Highers often serve as unnecessary add-ons, as pupils instead either take on more Higher qualifications or leave school altogether. When I told my UCAS referee I planned to take three Advanced Highers, she had one question: “Why?”.

Resultantly, the subjects range in availability as Advanced Highers are limited, and provision is poor. Glasgow’s Advanced Higher Hub, a lifeline for bright pupils in the city whose schools do not offer these qualifications, is set to be shut down due to funding cuts. Those in rural areas, for whom trekking to lessons at a neighbouring school is impossible, have no option but to accept that their potential has been wasted. Scotland’s education system simply does not translate to the rest of the country. Under years of SNP governance and in a climate where, in some circles, expressing a desire to attend an English university is a political statement, it is unsurprising that remedying this has not been a priority.

My inner-city state school in Glasgow defied the odds with its 100% success rate for Oxbridge applications in my year; mine was the only one. In fact, it was the only one my UCAS referee, who has been teaching since the ’80s, had ever handled. For a multitude of reasons, spanning from college admissions offices to the desks of Scottish Government officials, bright Scottish pupils are being deprived of a Cambridge education. This troubled relationship must be resolved collaboratively and through compromise; only then can Cambridge cease to feel so very foreign.