Linacre outlines rapid growth to double numbers from ex-industrial Yorkshire at leading universities

Linacre outlines rapid growth to double numbers from ex-industrial Yorkshire at leading universities

June 2020

Students from Doncaster, like these, will be some of the biggest beneficiaries of the ambitious new strategy

We are delighted today to launch our five-year strategy. Having proved our model, we now plan to double the numbers of sixth formers from ex-industrial Yorkshire going to the UK’s 12 most-selective institutions in the next four years.

We have already doubled the number of students on our programme in 2020, through a partnership with South Yorkshire Futures. In a programme revised in light of Covid-19, students will work through online learning modules in small squads, supported by expert tutors.

Since 2014, 9 out of 10 of Linacre’s students have won offers from the UK’s 12 most selective institutions. 44% of its Oxbridge applicants have won offers – a rate comparable to that of Eton and other leading independent schools, and twice the national average.

The new plans will mean 800 more students from social-mobility cold spots such as Barnsley and Doncaster going to the UK’s most competitive universities.

In its five-year strategy, we also set out plans to triple the numbers from ex-industrial Yorkshire going on to Oxford and Cambridge, to 300.

Formed in 2014, the Institute forms communities of intellectual curiosity among bright but potentially isolated sixth-formers in part of Yorkshire with low rates of progression to leading universities.

Paul Coupar-Hennessy, Linacre’s Founder and Executive Director, says: “The access gap facing students in Yorkshire is actually a chasm. Kingston upon Thames in London usually sends 150 students to Oxbridge each year; Kingston upon Hull usually sends 10 – despite having 100,000 more people living there. The model we began trialling in 2014 works. Independent studies have shown that. Now we want to bring it to many hundreds more sparky Yorkshire students.”