'Elitism' row student graduates

Dr Spence won a Harvard scholarship in the US after her Oxford rejection

A former comprehensive school pupil, who was the focus of a row over elitism after Oxford University rejected her, has graduated from Cambridge.

Laura Spence, 26, was awarded a degree in medicine at a ceremony in the city, having graduated with a distinction.

In 2000, Gordon Brown, at the time the chancellor, dubbed Oxford's decision to reject a pupil predicted to get five A grades at A-level "a scandal".

Dr Spence, from Monkseaton, Tyneside, now plans to begin work as a doctor.

After collecting her degree certificate, Dr Spence was tight-lipped about where she would be working and about her feelings on the controversy that followed her rejection by Oxford's Magdalen College.

"I'm starting work as a doctor now but I don't want to say anything more than that," she said.

'More balanced'

After gaining her predicted grades at A-level, at Monkseaton Community High School, she was offered a £35,000 scholarship to study at Harvard University in America.

She graduated in Biological Sciences with honours and then urged other students to head for the US where, she said, degrees were "more balanced" than in the UK.

During her time at Harvard, she gave a newspaper interview in which she said she did not blame Oxford University for her rejection, saying she had not done herself justice at her admission interview.

Dr Spence began a graduate course in medicine at Cambridge's Wolfson College four years ago.

Dr Diana Wood, clinical dean of Cambridge's School Of Clinical Medicine, said: "Laura has excelled in all aspects of her studies and has played a full part in college and clinical school life."