Oxford University to admit poor students with lower grades

England’s University of Oxford will offer places to students with lower grades from disadvantaged backgrounds for the first time in its 900-year history, write Gabriella Swerling and Camilla Turner for The Telegraph.

The radical scheme marks a ‘sea change’ in the university’s admissions process. However, it comes amid criticism from middle-class Oxford rejects and head teachers that private school students are being “squeezed out” by the university’s current diversity drive. From 2020, 250 state school students will receive free tuition and accommodation as part of a multi-million-pound recruitment bid for disadvantaged students.

However, 50 students in the new intake – which will include refugees and young carers – will be eligible to receive offers “made on the basis of lower contextual A-level grades, rather than the university’s standard offers”.
Full report on The Telegraph site