The University will welcome a record number of state-educated students in October, at 72.5% of the cohort, a slight increase on last year’s 71.6%.

The news was pre-empted earlier this year when Stephen Toope, the vice-chancellor, said: “I would say we have to keep making it very, very clear we are intending to reduce over time the number of people who are coming from independent school backgrounds into places like Oxford or Cambridge.”

Cambridge nonetheless missed a target for state school admissions, set unofficially by the Higher Education Statistics Agency in 2020. To meet it, state school applicants would have had to make up 76% of the University’s intake.

Cambridge’s share of state-educated pupils remains higher than Oxford University’s. Oxford also missed its target of 75.5%, but saw a 2.6% increase on last year. 

However, by some measurements Cambridge’s latest intake remains unrepresentative of the country as a whole.

Seven percent of incoming students are eligible for free school meals, significantly less than the national average. In 2021/22, over 22.5% of pupils in England were eligible for free school meals, falling to 12.1% for sixth form students.

Overall, according to the University over a quarter of incoming students are from “less advantaged backgrounds”, defined by average participation in higher education, as well as through deprivation indicators such as income, crime and healthcare.

This year also sees the launch of the University’s new foundation course. In October, 47 students will be welcomed onto the fully funded, year-long programme of study in the arts, humanities and social sciences.

The course is designed to widen access for students who have been prevented from reaching their full potential due to disadvantageous circumstances.

Responding to the new figures, Dr Sam Lucy, Cambridge’s director of admissions, said: “We’re delighted to be welcoming another cohort of talented young people on to our courses this year who have shown real resilience in going on to achieve superb results.

“Every student who gets a place at Cambridge thoroughly deserves it. We know that many will have faced challenging circumstances in the last two years and the Colleges are ready to help with the transition to university level study.”