...I went, briefly, to a Russell Group university for a year in 2007 as a mature student.
(I had to give up after the first year, as childcare had become impossible)
...I was doing History, a reputedly nobby subject, at Bristol, a reputedly nobby University.
There were 100 students in the year, about 95 of them were Jeremy and Jemimas from the poshest possible schools (at least two Etonians).
However.
...this is not all the University's fault. It is really trying to be inclusive, if sometimes in a ham fisted way. For example, History students were sent as 'ambassadors' to some of the lower achieving schools in the arse end of Bristol, as a way of showing the kids there that students were just like them. I fear that this initiative will have had precisely the opposite effect, though.....
...the real truth is, Bristol was full of posh kids from posh schools (who were mostly pretty bright and very personable it must be said) because that is who applies there!
When I applied, a fat 40 something from a postcode with 'low Uni participation', some crappy 'A' levels from a dodgy Comp, half an 80s Politics degree from a third division poly, and a few OU credits, they snapped me up.
....I gave them 'inclusivity points' I think.
I am sure that if more bright kids from other backgrounds bothered to apply, instead of self-selecting themselves to Thames Valley or Bournemouth or the like, then they would be accepted....
There endeth the lesson.