Only 247 A-level students from poor UK families won Oxbridge places in the past three years.
It is barely more than half the total sent by just two private schools, Eton and Westminster, in the same period. Eton ’s boarding fees top £48,500. Westminster’s are almost £44,000.
Department for Education figures make a mockery of Oxbridge vows to help hard-up students get in, and reveal a widening North-South divide.
Statistics show successful applicants in many poor council areas of only single figures over the past eight years – Salford in the North West sent eight while Sandwell in the West Midlands had five. In the same period southern counties sent over 1,000.
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In the past three years 123 free school-meals pupils went to Cambridge, 124 to Oxford. In the same period Eton sent 187, Westminster 228.
Chris McGovern, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: “Children from deprived backgrounds are being let down.”
Abigail Chadd, of tutoring firm A Level Revision UK, said: “No one should miss out on the opportunity of an elite education simply because of their background.”
Cambridge said it offered bursaries to more than 1,000 students with family incomes below £16,000.
Oxford did not comment.
The Department of Education admitted: “There is more do to.”
