Pupils from hundreds of private schools may have their access to Cambridge University boosted by a scheme set up to help deprived pupils.
Candidates from schools that have sent fewer than five pupils to Oxbridge in the past five years are flagged on the university’s “widening participation” system.
An investigation has revealed that such schools include Gordonstoun, the King’s alma mater, and an online school set up by Harrow.
Almost 300 fee-charging schools were flagged for “low participation in Oxbridge”, according to data obtained by the Varsity student newspaper under freedom of information laws.
The university uses contextual data before inviting applicants to interview, which includes whether they have spent time in care, been eligible for free school meals or live in a deprived area. It also considers their school’s academic performance and recent history of offers to Oxford or Cambridge. This is often used to increase the number of candidates interviewed from disadvantaged backgrounds or schools.
The investigation found that those who went to independent schools on the list accounted for 19 per cent of all applicants who received this consideration. About 6 per cent of all pupils in Britain are privately educated.
Varsity reported that 36 schools whose pupils benefited from the flags charged more than £40,000 a year.
• Cambridge is biased against rich white boys, says ‘anti-woke’ vice-chancellor
One of the schools, Stonar, allows riders to take their horse to school or to lease one from the school’s stables.
Cambridge University recently announced that under its access and participation plan it intended to abolish state school targets in favour of a more nuanced approach to assessing applicants.
A spokesman said: “All applicants to the university are considered holistically and no one piece of data is considered in isolation.”
He added that the admissions policy was being drafted following guidelines from the Office for Students, and was subject to further discussion.
A spokeswoman for the Private Education Policy Forum, which aims to reduce inequalities of access to education, said the findings flew in the face of the policy’s supposed purpose.
She added that with the exception of those on full bursaries, fee-paying students should be excluded from widening participation lists. She said the findings should lead to “soul-searching” at Cambridge.