Shrewsbury college's Oxbridge students success
Staff at a Shropshire school are celebrating after a record-breaking 27 students were offered places at Cambridge or Oxford universities.
The number, which includes four chemical engineering places for students at Concord College, near Shrewsbury, and a similar number for economics, represents more than one in seven of the year group at the Acton Burnell-based college.
Principal Neil Hawkins said: "The 27 offers is a truly exceptional performance and builds upon Concord's former record of 21 in 2015. This highly competitive annual selection process is enormously challenging and demanding.
"With an average of only one in five, and sometimes one in 10, of applicants being offered a place, the odds are not good.
"So these offers are wonderful news for the students who have been successful and for their families and friends.
"I am hugely grateful to all the teachers, tutors, university co-ordinators, heads of department, heads of house and the specialist teams who support our Oxbridge students as they prepare their application and face the subsequent challenge of pre-tests and interviews."
Dr Rob Pugh, Concord's academic officer who co-ordinates the college's Oxbridge applications, added: "It is a rare event for our talented students and their dedicated teachers to exceed their own high expectations, but I think this year, they have just about done so.
"To break the college record of Oxbridge offers, set only last year, is a wonderful achievement and one which will inspire the whole Concord community."
He added that seven of the students are former members of Concord's Lower School and the offers are in a wide range of subjects, with three places for both medicine and engineering, a similar number for natural sciences and two for veterinary science.
