Earlier this year, Theresa May became the 27th Oxford graduate to become prime minister. Cambridge, by contrast, has sent only 13 prime ministers to Westminster (or 14, if you count Charles Watson-Wentworth, whose educational history is the subject of some debate). The last Cambridge man to sit as prime minister was Stanley Baldwin in the early 1920s; there have been 10 Oxford grads who have led the government since then.
Since 1721, 40 of Britain’s 54 prime ministers went to either Oxford or Cambridge, collectively known as “Oxbridge.” The rivalry between the two elite institutions manifests itself in an annual boat race, which is how Oxford Today, a magazine sent to graduates, explains the situation in its latest issue:
If this contest morphed into the boat race, Oxford would be ahead by several lengths and still pulling away. [...]
The most recent non-Oxbridge prime minister, Gordon Brown (prime minister from 2007 to 2010), also studied in Edinburgh. John Major, who held the post from 1990 to 1997, was the last leader who didn’t go to university at all. Jeremy Corbyn, the current leader of the opposition Labour party, started a course at North London Polytechnic but didn’t finish it.
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