We're weeding out rich thickos who may have got places in the past, boasts Oxford admissions chief



Director of undergraduate admissions Mike Nicholson said process selects students based on aptitude alon e

Privileged hopefuls who might have been given preferential treatment a generation ago will now struggle to win a place, he said



The head of admissions at Oxford University has declared that he is weeding out ‘thick rich’ applicants who might have been offered places in the past.



Mike Nicholson, director of undergraduate admissions, said the admissions process selects students based on their aptitude alone.



Privileged hopefuls who might have been given preferential treatment a generation ago will now struggle to win a place, according to Mr Nicholson.

Oxford University's head of admissions Mike Nicholson has said he is weeding out 'thick rich' applicants

He said the world-class university is looking for the brightest and the best, irrespective of their backgrounds.



‘I really don’t care whether candidates are poor and bright or rich and bright. I want the bright ones. If they’re thick and rich, they’re the ones I’m hoping our process can exclude,’ he said.



Mr Nicholson said tougher testing was key to differentiating between deserving students and those who have been schooled to make it through the interview process for the prestigious university.



He said the ‘thing that really links our students together is that they are all selected on their academic merit, they’ve demonstrated that they can cope with the tutorial environment and they’re all really smart’.

His comments come in the wake of a high-profile example of a man trying to beat the system to win a place at Oxford. He placed an advert offering £122,300 for a private tutor to help him become an eligible candidate.



The unnamed Arab businessman’s advert in the Times Education Supplement said he needed an understanding of jazz piano, major works of opera and Shakespeare in order to apply.



As part of the Oxford admissions process, 90 per cent of students take an aptitude test designed for their subject.

Picture shows a student at Oxford University's Brasenose College

Mr Nicholson suggested applicants from the 70s and 80s were more likely to have been accepted based on social status.



He said: ‘Of those people who were admitted 20, 30, 40 years ago, it would be interesting to see how many of them would be admitted now.’ He told an international higher education conference run by the Sutton Trust charity: ‘We’re supposed to be identifying students with real potential for success, irrespective of social background.’



Oxford invests £8million in bursaries to help students from low-income backgrounds pay for their degrees. More than £3million is spent each year on outreach work that aims to encourage applicants from a variety of backgrounds.

A gender gap is opening up in universities, with women a third more likely to apply for higher education, it was claimed.



Mary Curnock Cook, chief executive of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, said if trends continue then by 2025 the biggest difference could be between men and women, not between those from rich and poor backgrounds.



Universities might in future have to treat young men as an under-represented group, she said.

