Oxford and Cambridge are admitting record numbers of state school students, the elite universities will announce soon.
Both are also set to introduce radical measures to try to boost access further for students from poorer backgrounds, including a free foundation year at Oxford with lower entry requirements for working-class and black and ethnic-minority students.
The changes, to be spelt out in plans to be submitted to the new universities regulator, are likely to provoke further dismay among some private school parents.
Last weekend Anthony Wallersteiner, the headmaster of Stowe School in Buckinghamshire, caused an outcry when he claimed that private school pupils were being edged out by “social engineering”.
The new figures, obtained exclusively by this newspaper, reveal that more than 59% of students admitted