The College has recently been the subject of news stories regarding its admissions policies. To be clear, there has been no change in our widening participation policy, and we continue to work very hard to support and attract students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
We propose to add some schools to the email lists we use to share our existing online initiatives, to ensure we receive applications from talented students from all backgrounds. This activity does not affect our overall Admissions Policy.
The College is very proud of the progress it has made in widening access. Admissions from state schools in the past three years averaged 73% and we have seen a rise in the admission of students from the most disadvantaged backgrounds to 20.4% in recent years.
Our efforts, which have made a demonstrable impact on our admissions statistics, include the ‘You’ll Fit In’ programme, which engages with thousands of ethnic minority students from maintained sector schools. We have also created the ‘Cambridge from the Inside’ podcast, which aims to break down barriers for applicants. We have reached 170,000 views on these videos.
In addition, the College participates in the STEM SMART programme, which supports educationally disadvantaged students in the sciences, as well as the University’s HE+ programme and extensive work with maintained sector schools in our link areas in the Southwest of England. We plan to continue and expand these activities in the years to come.
More can be found on the widening participation pages of our website.