Scottish applicants sit at the bottom of the UK 'league table' for successful Oxbridge applications, a figure that Robert Gordon's Head of College, Robin Macpherson, believes warrants investigation.

As exam results were disseminated across Scotland earlier this month, a number of pupils with conditional university offers would have been particularly anxious. Had they achieved the grades to go to their university of choice? The toughest offers are made by the most academically selective universities, with Oxford and Cambridge still perceived to be top destinations. However, there is an untold story that Scottish-domiciled applicants to Oxbridge are faring less well than others across the UK, and the figures are stark.

One stat really stands out. Last year, 96 pupils at Westminster School in London received Oxbridge offers. Yet from 2022 to 2024, the annual average number of Oxbridge offers received by pupils across all Scottish schools was just 91.7. In other words, the top school in England receives more offers than the whole of Scotland. Unpacking why this is requires an understanding of both the data and the possible causes.

What does the data say?

From 2020 to 2024, it is clear that Scotland received proportionally fewer offers than the other UK nations. If we divide the number of applications by the number of offers made, we see that English-domiciled applicants have a 21% success rate over that period. For Wales, it is 19% and for Northern Ireland 15.1%. Scotland lags behind on just 12.8%.

For every Scottish-domiciled applicant to Oxbridge, there is about a one in 10 chance of being accepted. In England, it is closer to one in five.

Over the most recent three-year admissions cycle, statistics show that 13.8% of Scottish applicants were accepted to Oxford University, the lowest percentage among UK nations. (Image: Oxford University Annual Admissions Statistics Report 2026)

The data present a clear trend: Scotland consistently........

© Herald Scotland