Oxbridge Offers Above Average

The Sixth Form College, Solihull is maintaining its long tradition of Oxbridge success this year with six students securing offers for places at either Oxford or Cambridge Universities.

College Principal, Paul Ashdown, congratulated the students. "Everyone who applies to Oxford or Cambridge knows that they are setting themselves the toughest challenge going, because they will be competing with the best students from all over the world, not just England. We are really proud of all the students who took this on and we know that our six successful students will do us proud."

Two of the College’s high flyers are mathematicians. Henry He (an overseas student from China, aged 18) and Matthew Parkes (aged 17, from Solihull) have offers from Christ’s College and Emmanuel College at Cambridge respectively.

There are also linguists: Louise Holt (aged 18, from Bentley Heath) with an offer to study Arabic & German at Queen’s College Cambridge, and Alex Norris (aged 18, from Monkspath) who has his offer for Spanish & Russian at Homerton College Cambridge.

Grace Brown (aged 18, from Solihull) has a place reserved at Selwyn College Cambridge for English, while Joseph D’Urso (aged 17, from Kings Norton) keeps Oxford in the frame with an offer to study Economics at New College.

Over the past ten years, nearly 100 students from The Sixth Form College, Solihull have secured Oxbridge places. Mr Ashdown explained that the competition has got tougher and tougher.

"We start preparing students for an Oxbridge application about halfway through their first year with us," he said. "It is vital that they do extra work over the summer to show that they are really special. Getting straight As at A Level just isn’t enough on its own. Oxbridge applicants need to show that they are already working beyond the demands of A Level, and that they are genuinely dedicated to academic study of their chosen subject.

"Plenty of outstanding candidates across the world do not get in, and so I’m really pleased that our success rate is about 25%, which is above the national average. This year there have been more than five applicants for every place at Oxford and Cambridge."