The proportion of state school pupils accepted into the University of Cambridge?has fallen by a record amount as the institution moves to scrap admissions targets in this area, analysis reveals.

It marks a further decline?one year after the proportion fell for the first time in a decade.

Undergraduate admissions figures for 2024 show that 2,673 UK pupils were accepted into Cambridge ¨C 2 per cent more than the year before and the first growth in domestic enrolment in four years.

Of these, 29 per cent were from private schools and the other 71 per cent from maintained schools.

51³Ô¹Ï

Maintained schools include comprehensive and grammar schools as well as sixth-form, further education (FE) and tertiary colleges.

The rate of acceptance of students from these institutions to Cambridge fell from 72.6 per in 2023. Analysis by?51³Ô¹Ï?shows this is the?largest fall since comparable records began in 2013, meaning state school intake has fallen back to levels last seen in 2020.

51³Ô¹Ï

While it previously aimed to admit at least 69 per cent of students from non-private institutions, Cambridge ?for applicants¡¯ school types last year to instead focus on wider socio-economic factors.

Martin Thompson, director of undergraduate admissions at Cambridge, said the drop in state school intake follows a period of rapid growth, and remains well above the pre-2020 average.

¡°We remain fully committed to widening participation and continue to expand our work with schools and communities across the UK, particularly in areas where progression to higher education is still low.

¡°Year-on-year variation is natural, but the long-term trend remains positive and a 71 per cent state sector intake still represents one of the highest levels on record.¡±

In 2021, a peak 37 per cent of the institution¡¯s UK undergraduate intake was from comprehensive schools. But after falling three years in a row, this proportion has declined to?only 31.1 per cent ¨C the lowest level since 2017.

51³Ô¹Ï

Last year¡¯s admissions saw a record 26 per cent admitted from grammar schools, but this too dropped back to 24.6 per cent in 2024.

In addition, 13.7 per cent were admitted from sixth-form college and?only 1.6 per cent from FE and tertiary colleges. The proportion from FE has halved since the pandemic and is at a record low.

Thompson said competition had ramped up for?several?of the subjects that state school students are most likely to apply for. ¡°This must be understood in the context of a secondary school sector still grappling with disrupted education and attainment gaps,¡± he added.

51³Ô¹Ï

The sciences continued to admit more state school pupils (72.3 per cent of the total) than the humanities (69.8 per cent).

The lowest proportions of state school pupils were in Classics, (30.6 per cent), music (45.6 per cent) and theology (54.1 per cent). In contrast, the highest was in the psychological and behavioural sciences, where 85.1 per cent are not from private schools.?

Despite losing ground on state school admissions, the figures show that Cambridge improved on widening participation in other ways.

Among its domestic intake, 5.6 per cent of students were from areas that had the lowest participation rates in higher education ¨C up from 4.9 per cent the year before. And the proportion accepted from ethnic minority backgrounds also increased year-on-year from?34.1 per cent to 35.4 per cent where the ethnicity was known.

51³Ô¹Ï

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com