male students with a female ratio of 59.7% in the undergraduate population. Under 40% of the student body is from private schools and the university has one of the smallest percentages of students (13%) from lower income backgrounds, out of all higher education institutions in the UK. According to data from UCAS, St Andrews' offer rate to students from the most deprived areas (as measured by SIMD20) has increased from 28% in 2010 to 72.1% for entry in 2022, almost three times higher than the university's overall offer rate for all students. The university participates in widening access schemes such as the Sutton Trust Summer School, First Chances Programme, REACH & SWAP Scotland, and Access for Rural Communities (ARC) in order to promote a more widespread uptake of those traditionally under-represented at university. In the seven-year period between 2008 and 2015, the number of pupils engaged with annual outreach programmes at the university has increased by about tenfold whilst the number of students arriving at St Andrews from the most deprived backgrounds has increased by almost 50 per cent in the past year of 2015.
=== Lecture series ===
To commemorate the university's 600th anniversary the 600th Lecture Series was commissioned in 2011, which brought diverse speakers such as former prime minister Gordon Brown, naturalist David Attenborough and linguist Noam Chomsky to St Andrews.
As part of the celebration of the 400th establishment of the King James Library, the King James Library lectures were initiated in 2009 on the subject of 'The Meaning of the Library'.
The Andrew Lang Lecture series was initiated in 1927, and named for alumnus and poet Andrew Lang. The most famous lecture in this series is that given by J. R. R. Tolkien in March 1939, entitled 'Fairy Stories', but published subsequently as 'On Fairy-Stories'.
The computing Distinguished Lecture Series was initiated in 1969 by Jack Cole.
=== Exchange programmes ===
St Andrews has developed student exchange partnerships with universities around the …
