§ Sir Teddy TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to paragraph 10, of page 10 of the White Paper, "Excellence in Schools", what is the statistical basis for the statement in respect of the Government's reliance on private schools to provide elite entry to universities and the professions. [8773]
§ Mr. ByersUnlike today, there was no systemic national collection of statistics on the entry to universities in the 19th century. However the view that most historians of education take of the position of higher education in England at the turn of the century would support the statement in the White Paper. For example, V. H. H. Green inThe Universities (Penguin, 1969) on page 125 states that, "Oxford and Cambridge still remained in 1900 the principal finishing schools of the upper and middle classes, recruiting most of their undergraduates from the independent public schools".