University of Cambridge to scrap its state school targets

The university has a current target of at least 69% of its students from state schools.

The University of Cambridge looks set to drop admission targets for undergraduates coming from state schools.

It currently aims to admit at least 69% of students from non-private settings.

Like other universities, Cambridge has to submit plans to the Office for Students (OfS) on how it will ensure equality of access.

The university said it was working on a new access plan that would take a wider range of factors into account.

A university spokesperson said its decision took into account guidance from OfS, the independent regulator of higher education in England.

They said the focus of the OfS was now on individual students and likely outcomes rather than broader categorisations such as school type.

Cambridge has seen a steady increase in state school students going to the university

The university is consulting on a five-year Access and Participation Plan (APP) that would begin in 2025, which would move away from a numerical target to draw on a wide range of data including whether applicants received free school meals.

The university said academic standards would not be lowered.

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Cambridge has faced significant criticism for admitting almost half of its students from London and the South East, including from state grammar schools with more socially privileged intakes.

The current vice chancellor Deborah Prentice has made clear she is interested in attracting more of the brightest students from across the north of England.

The spokesperson told the BBC: "The university will continue to take into account an applicant's schooling, particularly if they come from a school which has not seen many applications to Cambridge.

"Other socio-economic factors will also be considered in the application process to indicate disadvantage of opportunity, as occurs at present.

"Consideration of an applicant's school type in isolation is not a factor that the Office for Students would expect to see as a specific target in the Access and Participation Plan, however.

"The collegiate university is committed to widening participation and will continue to assess all applicants holistically and in line with admissions policy."

Education and socio-economic data would be taken into account when assessing potential students, Ms Prentice said

John Blake, director for fair access and participation at the OfS, said:"We would expect our most selective universities to consider carefully how to deploy their resources to ensure that all students who could practically benefit from their educational offer can access it, for example by undertaking sustained work with schools to help raise attainment among students from disadvantaged backgrounds, but we do not require a target on the proportion of pupils from state schools entering a particular university."

Mike Nicholson, the university's director of recruitment, admissions and participation, said data now available to the university allowed it to work out whether the potential student had "access to great support or whether they had been left to find the path themselves".

Mike Nicholson said the university would continue to look at the context of potential students' education

"The challenge we have is that there are many, many more students getting the grades that we require for entry, than we have places to accommodate, so what we're trying to do is use all the information at our disposal to identify the students who will be really, really developed by being here," he said.

"What we're trying to ensure is [that we are not] rejecting students out of hand without looking at the context and the circumstances that they've been educated in, and are studying in."