Regional student conference and freeadvice can help Scots reach Oxbridge

Published on Tuesday 29 January 2008 18:52

I CAN sympathise with “Jane McKay” (Oxbridge vetting process remains a riddle to hopefuls, 16 January) – I was also the only Scot when I was interviewed at Cambridge and I felt very different from, and rather intimidated by, the other applicants, whose English accents and confident talk of A-Levels made them seem far more entitled to be there than I was.

I was fortunate enough to be admitted and studied languages there very happily, quickly discovering more than half of the undergraduates had been to state schools (57 per cent of current Cambridge undergraduates come from the maintained sector and 54 per cent of those in Oxford) and it makes no difference where you come from: state school or private, English or Scottish, everyone fits in, finds friends and does well.

However, I do feel many students are at a disadvantage when applying to Oxbridge because they or their school do not have the knowledge to prepare them, and that is why I stayed on after my degree to work for Pembroke and St Catharine’s colleges as their higher education access officer.

I spend my time working with state schools to inform them about the Cambridge admissions process and trying hard to correct the misconceptions that are consistently perpetuated in the national press. Some of these are evident in Jane McKay’s article: for instance, there is absolutely no need to pay for admissions advice from a commercial company. All the information they provide is available free of charge directly from the universities.

It’s also simply not true that it is a disadvantage to apply to Oxbridge from a private school (or a state school for that matter): the entry levels are not weighted in favour of applicants from any type of school, as everyone is assessed individually and any kind of quota system would risk being unfair.

On a more Cambridge-specific note, I would like to point out that any Scottish applicants being interviewed in Cambridge most certainly do get accommodation and food free of charge for the duration of their stay and several colleges also offer free overnight accommodation to Scottish students who come down for open days or visits.

Both Cambridge and Oxford rate Advanced Highers very highly and we are keen to attract more applications from Scotland and especially from the state sector. As an Edinburgh native myself, I would love to extend my work further into Scotland, so anyone who is reading this and thinking about Oxbridge – or any teacher who would like more support in advising applicants – is very welcome to get in touch with me (e-mail ).

They might also like to know the two universities are holding one of their regional student conferences at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange on 18 March.

&#149 Hanna Weibye is the higher education access officer at Pembroke and St Catharine’s colleges, Cambridge.