<p>October 29 2006 22:01 | Last updated: October 29 2006 22:01</p>
<p>"Harvard University’s student recruiters are to target British state schools this year as part of an effort to break the grip the private sector has over its UK intake.</p>
<p>Representatives of the world’s most prestigious university will be dispatched to state schools to ensure students are aware of Harvard’s policy of waiving fees for parents with incomes of less than $60,000.</p>
<p>Janet Irons, senior admissions officer, said only a “tiny handful” of students from the UK came from state schools and the university was determined to correct the imbalance.</p>
<p>Top colleges have responded to criticism that only the wealthiest US families can afford to send their children by setting up generous bursary schemes but they are now turning their attention to their international intake.</p>
<p>Anselm Barker, a teacher at Millfield School in south-west England who is a Harvard alumnus himself, deals with students applying to the US, and said many state school students were put off by the fact that most centres for recruiting students and running SAT exams were based in private schools.</p>
<p>Last year, Harvard had 275 applicants from the UK but only 34 were offered places. According to the Fulbright Commission, some 8,400 British students are studying at US universities, 65 per cent of them undergraduates, and every year the number is rising significantly.</p>
<p>The interest in US universities among students at well-heeled private schools has increased in recent years as the cost of a degree has been pushed up by the government’s decision to allow English universities to charge limited tuition fees.</p>
<p>Wellington College has set a target of getting 10 per cent of its pupils into US universities by 2010 and up to 15 per cent by 2015.</p>
<p>Anthony Seldon, the college head, said the perceived bias by top UK universities against privately educated students, who often achieve the highest grades, was helping to encourage demand for places.</p>
<p>“Many of the students going to US universities are from the independent sector,” said Mr Seldon.</p>
<p>“Unfortunately the perception remains amongst independent schools that their students are being discriminated against by the better UK universities in favour of candidates from state schools, even though this may not be the reality.</p>
<p>“There is anxiety, too, about much-publicised under-funding of UK universities, as well as the impression that the UK is losing some of its most talented academics to overseas institutions, and these factors may also be influencing families’ thinking.”</p>