A SCHOOL in Bolton has among the highest numbers of students from all backgrounds from the North West going to the Oxford or Cambridge universities.

It was recently revealed less than 20 per cent of Oxbridge offers went to applicants living in the North and the universities criticised for the low number of offers made to ethnic minority groups.

Figures obtained by the former higher education minister Labour MP David Lammy showed that just over 48 per cent of offers from the universities went applicants from London and the South East, compared to under 20 per cent from the north.

He said: "This is a social apartheid.

"Overall, the picture painted by this data is of two institutions that overwhelmingly draw their students from a privileged minority in the South of England and are complacent at best about taking steps to widen participation and access."

They also showed that between 2010 to 2015 only three of Oxford's 32 colleges made an offer to a black A-level applicant every year.

Oriel college made just one offer during that same period to a black student.

Figures for Cambridge University reveal that for each of the six years, on average, a quarter of colleges failed to make any offers to black British applicants.

Less than one per cent of offers went to Pakistani applicants, and in 2015, 14 of Cambridge's 29 colleges did not make a single offer to a Pakistani applicant.

Philip Britton, head of Bolton School boys' division said: "Although the figures show the north may be underrepresented at Oxbridge, we are pleased to be one of the significant sources of Oxbridge success in the North West.

"With one in five students here on a means tested bursary, which are offered to the brightest and best, a good number of those successful applicants will be from the groups mentioned in the report and are real and powerful examples of how a school like this can be an engine for social mobility."

A spokesman for the University of Cambridge said its admissions decisions are based on academic considerations alone and spends £5 million a year on access measures, which includes work focused with black and ethnic minority students.

The spokesman said:"The greatest barrier to participation at selective universities for students from disadvantaged backgrounds is low attainment at school.

"We assess the achievements of these students in their full context to ensure that students with great academic potential are identified."

The university said in 2016, 39 black British students were admitted for undergraduate study, and that between 2007 and 2016 the number of black British students accepted annually has increased by 30 per cent.