ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the type of university entered by students from comprehensive schools, some of the changes that are taking place in the relationship between Oxford, Cambridge and the comprehensive school. It considers A-Level grades attained by this group of students comparing them with the university population in general. For purposes of analysis, the forty-four universities in the United Kingdom were grouped into five categories: Oxford and Cambridge, redbrick, provincial, new, and technological. The social class bias emerges clearly when one examines the background of applicants to Oxbridge from comprehensive schools. Though the comprehensive school appears to be lessening the social class bias in entrants to Oxbridge, it is still true to say that both at the candidate stage and at entry the bias still persists. If anything, comprehensive school students tended to be slightly better qualified than the university population in general.
