Oxford is the brainiest place in Britain according to research by the Office of National Statistics.
In the Oxford West and Abingdon constituency 42% of people are educated to degree level, compared to 29% nationally. Only 2% of people have no qualifications.
The results do not come as a surprise. Tom Hosking, a student at Worcester College said, “We’re the top university town in the country with a large number of students. It doesn’t necessarily reflect the standard of schools in Oxford. But, it is slightly intimidating knowing that the person next to you in Sainsbury’s could be a Nobel Prize winner.”
One-fifth of the 70,000 residents in the constituency are students, many of them graduates. The university also employs nearly 4000 academic staff.
Dr Evan Harris, MP for Oxford West and Abingdon said the figures showed the Government was failing to tackle the national education divide. In poorer areas of the city such as Blackbird Leys, half of residents have no qualifications.
