Don’t be fooled – you’d get into Oxford
Rachel Johnson calls to tell me she’s doing a piece for the Financial Times saying she wouldn’t have got into Oxford if she’d been applying this year. She’s quite wrong, of course. A myth has grown up among my generation of Oxford graduates that it’s harder for their children to get in than it was for them, when in fact the opposite is true.
There are two reasons why they think this. First, they mistakenly believe that getting two As and an A* in their A-levels — the standard Oxford offer today — is beyond them. This ignores the rampant grade inflation of the past 25 years. One of the most remarkable facts about this year’s batch of A-level results is that it was the first time in 14 years the percentage getting top marks didn’t increase. The proportion that got As in 1997 was 15.7 per cent, compared with 27 per cent getting As or A*s today. It’s not an exaggeration to say that two Bs and an A in the early ’80s is the equivalent of two As and an A* in today’s money.
The second reason people like Rachel are being unduly modest is because they genuinely believe that all Oxford colleges operate a form of positive discrimination that makes it virtually impossible for anyone educated at a top independent school to get in.
In fact, it’s easier to get into Oxford from a fee-paying school today than it was a quarter of a century ago. In 1983, the year I was admitted to Brasenose College, people who’d been educated in the state sector (like me) comprised approximately 65 per cent of the student body. In 2011, when this year’s successful applicants have been taken into account, the figure will be roughly 57.5
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