Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many young people who had been in receipt of free school meals applied to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in 2010-11.

The information for Oxbridge is not held centrally.

Figures published by UCAS in July 2013 show that, in 2010, the application rate of 18 year olds in state schools in England who had received free school meals at age 15 was 13.2%, compared to 32.2% for those who had not received them. In 2013, the rates were 14.8% and 32.9% respectively. The application rate measures the percentage of 18 year olds who apply to enter full-time undergraduate courses in the UK. UCAS is an organisation independent from Government.