St Anne’s congratulates everyone receiving A-Level results today and looks forward to welcoming to the College a 2022 cohort of 129 high-achieving students who come from a diverse range of social, cultural and economic backgrounds, including pupils who are care experienced, disabled, neurodiverse, from many different regions of the UK and at least 17 nationalities. These students have been educated in schools and colleges that have very little experience of sending pupils to Oxford, as well as top independent schools, grammars, comprehensives, 6th form colleges and academies. An increasing number are from the least advantaged backgrounds, demonstrating the College’s and University’s ongoing commitment to ensure that the most academically able pupils who aspire to study at the University of Oxford all have a fair chance of admission. The diversity of this year’s intake honours the principles on which St Anne’s was founded: of widening access to education and aiming to be the home of choice for the brightest and most ambitious students from all backgrounds.
Of St Anne’s 2022 UK Freshers, about 23% attended independent schools and 77% are state-educated. We are pleased that 11 of these students will be joining the bridging programme, Opportunity Oxford , now in its third year, which provides additional academic support to help some less advantaged students transition successfully from school to the University. St Anne’s has championed Opportunity Oxford from its beginnings, and, as we announced in May, our tutors will be selecting the first students to take part in the Astrophoria Foundation Year early next year. We are proud to participate in these University initiatives.
This is the first time since 2019 that school leavers have received grades based on national summer examinations. For many, these were the first external examinations they have taken and they sat them after several years of significantly disrupted schooling. We would like to recognise and celebrate the resilience, hard work, and determination of them all – whether they will be coming to Oxford in October or not. We also recognise and applaud the key roles played by their teachers, parents and friends, and the efforts of the Oxford admissions tutors who thoroughly and fairly assessed thousands of highly competitive applications.
When the College admitted our 2020 and 2021 cohorts, we recognised that the pandemic had only widened existing inequalities in educational provision and opportunity. In response to concerns that these year groups would be less prepared for university life than their predecessors, we increased our provision of welfare and additional academic support to ensure gaps in access to education at school do not follow students through their University experience. We are grateful to our tutors, outreach, and welfare teams for their hard work, and to alumnae and donors who generously helped with funding. The College is committed to supporting our students to fulfil their academic potential and the 2022 incoming cohort will continue to have access to additional support, when needed.
Once again we would like to congratulate all this year’s school leavers on their hard work and wish them well for the future. We look forward to welcoming our new freshers to St Anne’s soon – and would like to remind prospective applicants that the last 2022 University of Oxford Open Day will take place on 16th September, should you wish to discover whether St Anne’s could be where you want to study from 2023.