Once again Cambridge finds itself questioning who gets to study here and why. New figures have revealed that between 2011 and 2012 the University of Cambridge saw a 14 per cent drop in applications from Scottish students, as numbers fell from 378 to 324.  Last year also saw the number of Oxbridge places going to pupils from Welsh comprehensive schools fall by a fifth. 

Statistics compiled by the University show that in 2011 only 57 students were accepted to the University of Cambridge from Wales and 55 from Scotland. In the same period, 597 students were admitted from London alone.

Dr Mike Sewell, director of admissions for Cambridge, expressed a desire to “understand the reasons behind the drop in applications and tackle them”. The drop in Oxbridge applications follows the government’s introduction of the new tuition fees regime, which sees students from Scotland as well as England pay up to £9,000 per year when they attend an English university, as opposed to paying around £1,800 for a course in Scotland.

Addressing the issue, a spokeswoman for Oxford University was keen to emphasise that Scottish students “have access to the country’s most generous no-strings financial support package for the lowest-income students”. 

However, some Scottish students suggest that even with the offer of extra financial support there is a trend towards staying in Scotland for higher education. Claire Johnstone, a Scottish student at Stirling University, said that in her school there was a general attitude that attending English universities was not a feasible option: “They were thought of as too expensive for us and nobody was sure if the government would help pay for the fees.”

For students living in Wales however tuition fees have stayed the same at around £3,500, regardless of where they study in the UK. From this year the Welsh government is providing all new students with a grant of up £5,425 per year to cover the extra cost of the new tuition fees regime, following a decision made in 2011 by the country’s Labour-Plaid Cymru coalition to keep fee costs down.

But despite this, statistics compiled by the BBC show that only 76 pupils from Welsh comprehensive schools gained places at Oxbridge in 2012, down from 96 in 2008. Over the same period however, the number of Welsh entrants from independent schools has stayed the same.  

Chris Hitchcock, a student at King’s College who comes from Wales, spoke of there being a problem with expectations. “In my town everybody grew up going to one of the local schools, then perhaps got a degree from a nearby Welsh university and returned to live in the same town”.

In March the Welsh government appointed Paul Murphy MP, a former Welsh Secretary, as Wales’ Oxbridge ambassador, with the job of driving up the number of Welsh pupils gaining entrance to the two universities. Last year the MP’s office published research which suggested the Welsh Baccalaureate, the qualification taken by many Welsh teenagers in their last two years of school, could be one reason behind the fall in Oxbridge acceptances. Under the Welsh Bacc some pupils take just two A-levels, in addition to studying other modules on personal development, enterprise and current affairs, rather than the three required by Cambridge and Oxford in their standard entry requirements.