Pupils from independent schools take 47% of Cambridge places

State school pupils have barely increased their numbers at Cambridge University despite a multimillion-pound drive to ensure places go to the brightest students whatever their background.

The proportion of Cambridge places going to state school pupils rose slightly this year to 53 per cent, but applicants from independent schools are still more likely to be offered a place. Of the 8,544 UK candidates who applied to join the university this autumn, 42 per cent came from independent schools. However, pupils from fee-paying schools made up 47 per cent of the students accepted. Applicants from state schools made up 58 per cent of the total but secured only 53 per cent of places.

More than 90 per cent of children in Britain are educated in state schools, with only 7 per cent attending fee-paying school.

Within the state sector, 15 per cent of successful students came from grammar schools, 66 per cent from comprehensives and 19 per cent from further education colleges. State schools have supplied more than half of Cambridge's intake every year since 1995 but the launch of schemes to widen access to the university has produced no more progress.

The discrepancy between the chances of success for students from state or independent schools begins at interview, according to figures published yesterday by the university. Almost every applicant to Cambridge is invited for interview but independent school pupils are more likely to be offered places after meeting academics. More than six out of 10 state school applicants (61.3 per cent) are rejected after the interview, compared with 55.9 per cent of students from fee-paying schools.

State school sixth-formers who are made offers are also more likely to lose their places by failing to gain the required grades. More than one in five state school students (21.6 per cent) offered a Cambridge place will never get to the university because of disappointing A-level results, compared with less than 15 per cent of fee-paying students.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, which represents schools in the both state and independent sectors, said Ox-bridge interviews were not doing justice to state pupils. "State school pupils find the Oxbridge admission procedures less congenial than independent school pupils. The interview process is still causing problems for the less confident students, who do tend to come from state schools."

The colleges admitting the highest proportion of state- sector pupils were King's at 78 per cent; Robinson, 64 per cent; and Fitzwilliam, 60 per cent. Those with the lowest proportion of state school pupils were Gonville and Caius, 36 per cent; Peterhouse, 43 per cent; and Magdalene, 44 per cent.