New figures show that the proportion of undergraduates from state schools who started degree courses in Cambridge colleges this autumn actually fell slightly compared with last year.

The figures underline the need for the university's latest drive to encourage more pupils at state comprehensives, in particular, to apply.

The table below shows the number and percentage of applicants by type of school - and how they fared:

	applied	% of total	accepted	% of total	success
1998
state schools	5198	48	1414	46	27
private schools	3853	36	1390	45	36
other/overseas	1739	16	300	10	17
total	10790		3104		29
1997
state schools	5544	48	1453	47	26
private schools	4098	36	1397	45	34
other/overseas	1795	16	274	9	15
total	11437		3124		27

Note: percentages may total more than 100% due to rounding
Source: Cambridge Intercollegiate Applications Office

In 1997, 47% of all those accepted came from state schools and colleges, 45% from independent, fee-paying schools.

This year, the state sector figure fell to 46%. The independent sector stayed the same and there was a 1% increase in the number of successful applicants from other sources, mainly overseas.

The university authorities regard this as statistically too small a change to be significant.

But 1,345 more state school pupils applied. As shown in the final column - which we have added - their success rate is significantly below that for the independent sector: 27% against 36%.

Plateau

The Director of Admissions, Susan Stobbs, said Cambridge had made great strides since dropping its entrance exam 12 years ago, and more recent initiatives had paid off.

"To begin with we had a very significant increase in applications but in the past three years that has flattened out and it's now at a steady state," she said.

"We did a far-reaching review a year ago and found that although we were doing a lot of things they were not very effective, largely due to lack of resources."

Oxford University has been grappling with a similar problem, with some apparent success, as the figures - published here for the first time - show:

	applied	% of total	accepted	% of total	success
1998
state schools	4249	45.5	1449	43.8	34
private schools	3660	39.2	1565	47.3	43
other/overseas	1431	15.3	294	8.9	21
total	9340		3308		35
1997
state schools	4189	43.9	1338	41.6	32
private schools	3733	39.2	1581	49.1	42
other/overseas	1613	16.9	300	9.3	19
total	9535		3219		34

Note: percentages may total more than 100% due to rounding
Source: Oxford Colleges Admissions Office

In general, there are fewer applicants per place so people stand a better chance of getting in. But the gap between the success rates of state school pupils and those from independent schools is the same: 34% against 43%.

The number of pupils from maintained schools getting in this year was 43.8% of the total, up from 41.6% last year. But this also shows that Oxford has further to go than Cambridge in attracting people from state schools.

The Secretary of the Oxford Colleges Admissions Office, Jane Minto, said the university used a wide range of activities to contact schools and to encourage pupils and teachers to visit to see for themselves what Oxford was like.

"We would share the aims that we are very keen that well qualified young people from the maintained sector think carefully about applying to Oxford and understand the sort of education and facilities that we have, and take advantage by competing for a place," she said. "But it is competitive and we have to explain that to them."

Cambridge this year made a new effort with a poster campaign aimed at pupils in state schools and such things as the Target Schools Scheme, attempting to overcome negative preconceptions.

Reality gap

"A gap exists between the perception many sixth-formers have of Cambridge and the reality of being an undergraduate there," the scheme's literature says.

"Because of this, many able sixth-formers do not consider themselves to be good enough to make an application and others even consider themselves to be 'not the right type of person'."

The scheme writes to every state sector sixth form in the country, giving the school the opportunity of hearing a Cambridge undergraduate talk about life at Cambridge, and offers advice on Cambridge's applications procedure, which differs from most universities.

Susan Stobbs says the university does not want to set a formal target for the proportion of state pupils it attracts, but knows that it needs to do more to get its message across to those at comprehensives especially.

It also has a problem getting mature students, and shares with all universities the difficulty in attracting applicants from ethnic minorities.