Traditional A-levels propel more private pupils to top universities

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Figures out today reveal that elite institutions are accepting more students from fee-paying schools despite a Government drive to close the social class gap at university.

Privately-educated applicants had a 65.6 per cent chance of being offered a place at an elite institution this autumn - up from 62.5 per cent last year.

Success rates were even higher - more than 80 per cent - for courses in traditional academic disciplines such as biology, physics and maths.

The Independent Schools Council said the figures showed elite universities favoured students predicted to achieve three A-levels at grades A or B.

They valued them more highly than candidates with strings of A-levels or equivalent vocational qualifications but with poorer results.

The ISC calculated the application success rates using results from a survey of 139 leading feepaying schools.

This produced a database of 34,700 individual applications to courses at 217 universities and the resulting breakdown was compared with a similar analysis last year.

The figures showed the average acceptance rate to the Russell Group of 20 elite universities including Oxford and Cambridge was 65.6 per cent - a 3.1 point increase on the previous year.

The ISC said the latest figures showed that 52 per cent of feepaying pupils achieved at least A-levels at grades A and B. For all candidates, including those from feepaying schools, the figure was 26 per cent.

Pru Jones, the ISC's head of research, said: "The results of our analysis show that if you use the quality of A-levels rather than the quantity it does explain quite a large proportion of the differences in admissions rates.

"The role of the university is to take the best quality candidates. Our kids are doing brilliantly at A-level and as a consequence they are getting into Russell Group universities."

The trend will put admissions tutors on a collision course with ministers who have set universities targets for dramatically raising their quota of students from poor backgrounds.