Oxford and Cambridge universities are teaching nearly 1,000 fewer British undergraduates than they were five years ago, despite spending millions of pounds on programmes designed to widen participation and improve access for disadvantaged UK applicants. Nearly one in four UK applicants – 23% - were made an offer, compared with one in 10 non-EU applicants and one in eight EU applicants. But critics including the Sutton Trust and the Labour party argued that Oxbridge’s priority should be to educate talented UK applicants, given the huge number of qualified applicants the two universities attract domestically. Oxford showed similar changes, with 420 more international students and 400 fewer British undergraduates in the same five years. In contrast, British universities such as Bristol and Exeter have increased their UK undergraduate numbers by more than 50%.

Source: The Guardian February 26, 2019 19:08 UTC