New Statistics Dispell Oxford Elitism Claims

When Oxford University's Magdalen College rejected Laura E. Spence '04 and Harvard accepted her last spring, an uproar of protests swept across Europe.

Critics charged that Oxford had discriminated against Spence because she graduated from a state-sponsored school.

They pointed to legacy of elitism, showing that in the past the university had accepted a substantially larger percentage of private school students than those from public school.

But recently-released numbers from the past year's admissions show that, for the first time since Oxford began recording such statistics, the school admitted a larger percentage of students from state-sponsored schools than from private schools.

According to statistics expected to be released this week, Oxford accepted 42.2 percent of state-sponsored school graduates, compared to 41.7 percent of graduates of independent schools.

The data, which is from the year Spence was denied admission, casts doubt on the claims of discrimination against public school students brought about by Gordon Brown, the British chancellor.

Officials from the university, who had denied all accusations of favoring private school students from wealthy backgrounds, cite the statistics as proof of the university's fairness.

Despite rising admission rates, however, the total number of state-schooled students dropped this past year. In 1999, public school students made up 56 percent of the total applicants, but in this past year the total fell to 54 percent.

When Spence's story hit newspapers throughout Europe last spring, it spurred a wave of negative publicity about Oxford's admissions policy.

But according to the Magdalen website, students from all types of schools have and have always had, equal opportunity.

"There is no hidden agenda at Magdalen," the website stated. "We believe in access and will use our resources to encourage applications from all quarters, but we equally value candidates from schools that have been sending us fine candidates for years."

The admissions page on the website specifically targeted the issue of equality.

"We are not concerned with social status, background, accent, race, religion, gender, disability or anything else of that nature," the website stated. "The most important quality that we are looking for is high academic potential, i.e. an intelligent, enthusiastic and energetic interest in your subject."

Spence said she could not comment on the accusations made last spring nor on the admissions statistics just released because she has an exclusivity contract with the British newspaper The Daily Mail.