The University of Oxford has been accused of “replacing” British private school pupils with wealthy overseas students who pay more fees and are seen as less politically “toxic”.

The decrease in offers to private school pupils has come at the same time as an increase in offers to overseas students, an analysis of admissions data by The Telegraph found.

Since 2014, Oxford has made 127 fewer offers to British private school students, while making 106 more offers to overseas students and 81 more to EU students. Some 178 more offers were made to British state school pupils.

While UK and EU students pay up to £9,250 per year in fees, international students generally pay at least treble this. A history degree costs £27,285 per year for overseas students, while medicine costs £34,025.

International students’ fees create a profit centre for British universities, subsidising teaching and research.

An Oxford admissions source said that while other Russell Group universities made no secret of their overseas recruitment as a way to balance their books, this was not the case at Oxford.

Two elite private schools in Singapore – Raffles Institution and Hwa Chong Institution – have dominated Oxford’s overseas intake in recent years, receiving a combined 162 offers between 2016 and 2018. St Anne’s, St John’s and Queen’s colleges handed out more places to alumni of Raffles Institution than any British school over the three-year period.

When Oxford publishes data on admissions, it tends to focus on the split between British state and private schools and claims the vast majority of its UK offers are to state applicants.

However, when EU and overseas students are factored in, the proportion of state school offers is much closer to half, with roughly a quarter going to private school students and a quarter going to EU and overseas students.

Nick Hillman, the Higher Education Policy Institute director, said overseas students were seen as less politically “toxic” since they do not upset the British private versus state school ratio.

“It does seem a little odd to celebrate a higher proportion of UK state school entrants if this merely reflects the replacement of privileged Brits with privileged overseas students,” he said. “The difference of course is that overseas students pay more.”

William Vanbergen, the founder of the BE Education consultancy based in China, said the vast majority of Asian students getting Oxbridge places were from highly privileged backgrounds.

Barnaby Lenon, the Independent Schools Council chairman, said: “The statistic Oxford is always publishing is the independent-state ratio, which does not paint the full picture. You can’t publish data about your university and ignore a quarter of students.”

A University of Oxford spokesman said: “Everyone at Oxford is chosen based on academic merit and ability alone – not on the fees they may bring with them, the country or postcode they live in. Places to study are won by demonstrating academic potential through open competition, following the same rigorous application and admission process.”