Forty-seven pupils have been offered places at Oxford and Cambridge this year, easily exceeding the previous QE record of 40.
Thirty-two offers have come from Cambridge and 15 from Oxford, spanning a huge range of subjects, from Engineering to Medicine and from Languages to Law.
Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This figure of 47 represents a magnificent achievement both for the boys themselves and for our dedicated team of staff, including those who teach them and those who have used their considerable experience to guide them through the application process. My heartfelt congratulations go to them all.
“To secure their offers, these pupils have demonstrated not just their mastery of their curriculum subjects, but the breadth of knowledge and the free-thinking scholarship that we seek to nurture in all our pupils.
“In March this year, we celebrate the 450th anniversary of the School’s foundation by royal charter: what better way to mark our anniversary year than with this outstanding performance!”
The Oxford total of 15 offers is itself a QE record, as is the total of 32 at Cambridge. QE’s Oxbridge offers come from some of the oldest colleges – such as Oxford’s Balliol, founded in 1263 – and by some of the newest, including Lucy Cavendish at Cambridge, which was established in 1965 and achieved recognition as a constituent college in 1977.
Subjects to be studied include some of the ancient universities’ most famous courses: two students will take Oxford’s Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) degree, while four will read Natural Sciences at Cambridge.
There are offers across the arts, humanities and sciences, with the subjects gaining the highest number of offers as follows:
- Medicine (eight places)
- Mathematics (seven, plus one in combination with Computer Science)
- Engineering (seven, plus two more for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology)
- Natural Sciences (four)
- Economics (two, plus two in combination with Management).
The 2022 School Captain, Theo Mama-Kahn, currently in Year 13, is among the 47, securing an offer to read French and German at Wadham College, Oxford.
Mr Enright added: “I am tremendously proud that, as a state school welcoming very able boys of all backgrounds, we have been able to secure such a high number of offers.
“As ever, there are some strong and highly capable candidates who nevertheless missed out on places at Oxford and Cambridge, but they, like so many of their Year 13 peers are being offered places at other leading universities in the UK and elsewhere.
“I look forward to all these Elizabethans going on to great success in their careers and lives, making a worthwhile and significant contribution to society.”