Access
Public debate within the UK continues over whether or not admissions processes at Oxford and Cambridge are entirely advantage based mostly and fair; whether or not enough students from state faculties are inspired to use to Cambridge; and whether or not these students reach gaining entry. In 2007–08, fifty seven of all prospering candidates were from state faculties. Critics have argued that the dearth of state college candidates with the desired grades applying to Cambridge and Oxford has had an adverse effect on Oxbridge's name for several years, and also the University has inspired pupils from state faculties to use for Cambridge to assist redress the imbalance. Others counter that government pressure to extend state college admissions constitutes inappropriate social engineering. The proportion of undergraduates drawn from freelance faculties has born over the years, and such candidates currently kind a (very large) minority (43%) of the intake. In 2005, thirty second of the 3599 candidates from freelance faculties were admitted to Cambridge, as against pure gold of the 6674 applications from state faculties. In 2008 the University of Cambridge received a present of £4m to boost its accessibility to candidates from maintained faculties. Cambridge, in conjunction with Oxford and Durham, is between those academies that have adopted formula that offers a rating to the GCSE performance of each college within the country to "weight" the lots of university candidates.

With the discharge of admissions figures, a 2013 article within the Guardian re-portable that ethnos candidates had lower success rates in individual subjects even after they had identical grades as white candidates. The University was thus criticized for what was seen as institutional discrimination against ethnos candidates in favor of white candidates. The University denied the claims of institutional discrimination by stating the figures failed to take under consideration "other variables". A following article declared that within the years 2010–2012 ethnos candidates to medication with three A* grades or higher were two hundredth less probably to achieve admission than white candidates with similar grades. The University refused to supply figures for a wider vary of subjects claiming it might be too pricey.