A glowing Ucas study has concluded that Linacre’s work is revolutionising students’ university chances.
The report compared our 2014 to 2017 cohorts to students in their database with similar backgrounds and GCSE results.
On almost every measure, Linacre’s impact on students’ destinations was “very significantly high”.
The independent study found Linacre students had extraordinary success at the “highest performing and most competitive institutions”.
Fifty-seven per cent of Linacre students reached these universities, compared with 8% of their non- Linacre equivalents.
Paul Coupar-Hennessy, Executive Director of the Institute, said: “This report provides independent, robust evidence of what we already know – that Linacre is a community of curiosity that transforms students’ ideas of the possible when it comes to university, replacing ‘Why me?’ with ‘Why not me?’”
Oxbridge chances were also revolutionised.
A Linacre student was 27 times more likely to make an Oxbridge application, and something like 63 times more likely to win an offer. An offer rate of 38% is in line with that of the country’s leading independent schools. Ninety-five per cent of Linacre students won an offer from a Sutton trust 30 university – one of the 30 recognised by the Sutton Trust as the most selective.
By contrast, the ‘expected’ figure was 10%.
The report looked at the 80 students in our first four cohorts.
It showed “Very significantly high” impacts in every measurable category looking at access to leading universities. A significant result refers to a difference between groups which is not down to chance.
The report was carried out by Ucas’s STROBE group, who measure the impact of access initiatives on students’ chances.
Mr Coupar-Hennessy thanked Ucas and said, “I am delighted but not complacent. This is a small cohort and we want to offer this chance to more students. We also have more work to do in making sure that our students’ superb offers are always transformed into places.
“But we now have independent evidence that Linacre is transforming lives.”
