Oxford University's admissions figures published this week show that the proportion of applicants offered a place has dropped for the third year running.
Three years ago more than a third (34.2 per cent) of applicants were accepted; this year just over a quarter (25.9 per cent) got in.
Admissions heads said the number of applications has been rising every year, and there has been a clampdown on allowing the number of conditional offers to exceed places available.