Local Post Codes Top for Oxford

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Highest number of students from local area gaining admission

Local post code areas are providing the highest number of students gaining admission to Oxford University according to recently released figures.

A Freedom of Information request made by The Star newspaper of Sheffield showed that Oxford took 912 students from the SW post code area of London including Putney, Wimbledon, Fulham and Wandsworth over the last seven years.

The second highest was the Oxford post code area itself with 719 successful candidates followed by the W post code area including Chiswick, Ealing, Hammersmith, Acton and Shepherd's Bush with 630.

The paper found that only 147 students came from Sheffield over the last seven years and the first post code area north of Birmingham to appear in the list was at number 22.

But Dr Julia Paolitto, a spokeswoman for The University of Oxford, is quoted as saying it was ‘neither useful nor acceptable for a university in search of the best students to rule out talented candidates simply because of where they come Oxford therefore selects students on the basis of achievement and potential, and nothing else.'

The paper asked The University of Cambridge for its intake data but was refused.

February 16, 2012