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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/oct/28/big-issue-oxbridge-has-only-itself-to-blame-for-lack-of-diversity
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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Oxbridge only has itself to blame for its lack of diversity | Oxbridge only has itself to blame for its lack of diversity |
| (14 days later) | |
| Priyamvada Gopal’s arguments for the need for a conversation about “wider deprivation and systemic inequality” and a “two-tiered education structure” merely deflect from the unassailable truth about Oxbridge’s appalling admissions processes (“Oxbridge bashing is an empty ritual if we ignore wider social inequities”, Comment). | Priyamvada Gopal’s arguments for the need for a conversation about “wider deprivation and systemic inequality” and a “two-tiered education structure” merely deflect from the unassailable truth about Oxbridge’s appalling admissions processes (“Oxbridge bashing is an empty ritual if we ignore wider social inequities”, Comment). |
| She sounds too much like the Oxford apologist who, when the figures were released to David Lammy, claimed that rectifying the problem was “a long journey”, needing a “huge, joined-up effort across society”. This is echoed by Gopal blaming the existence of private schools for Oxbridge’s bias towards them. Why, when the figure for attendance at private schools is 7%, do Oxbridge colleges recruit 40% from the independent sector, when research at Cardiff and Oxford Brookes universities proved students from state schools gain better degrees than the independently educated with the same A-level grades? | She sounds too much like the Oxford apologist who, when the figures were released to David Lammy, claimed that rectifying the problem was “a long journey”, needing a “huge, joined-up effort across society”. This is echoed by Gopal blaming the existence of private schools for Oxbridge’s bias towards them. Why, when the figure for attendance at private schools is 7%, do Oxbridge colleges recruit 40% from the independent sector, when research at Cardiff and Oxford Brookes universities proved students from state schools gain better degrees than the independently educated with the same A-level grades? |
| Is it any wonder that few high-attaining black or working-class students are attracted to apply to Oxford or Cambridge, when they do so little to disprove the myths that surround them? | Is it any wonder that few high-attaining black or working-class students are attracted to apply to Oxford or Cambridge, when they do so little to disprove the myths that surround them? |
| Bernie EvansLiverpool | Bernie EvansLiverpool |
| The obvious way to loosen the stranglehold of private schools is to abolish their charity tax status. Fees would rise, most of the middle-class intake would be priced out and, as has been shown, state schools flourish and attain high standards for everybody when patronised by the middle classes. When I was at Oxford in 1961-4, there was a roughly 50% private/state intake. I was one of the latter (and wouldn’t have been without a state scholarship). This is not possible now, but what about reduction, or abolition, of fees for the poorest?Gill PetersWalmer, Kent | The obvious way to loosen the stranglehold of private schools is to abolish their charity tax status. Fees would rise, most of the middle-class intake would be priced out and, as has been shown, state schools flourish and attain high standards for everybody when patronised by the middle classes. When I was at Oxford in 1961-4, there was a roughly 50% private/state intake. I was one of the latter (and wouldn’t have been without a state scholarship). This is not possible now, but what about reduction, or abolition, of fees for the poorest?Gill PetersWalmer, Kent |
| Priyamvada Gopal asks: “Who would be willing to call for the abolition of private schooling?” Obviously not the Conservatives, but why don’t Labour or the Liberal Democrats grasp this nettle?Dr Peter Slade Guildford | Priyamvada Gopal asks: “Who would be willing to call for the abolition of private schooling?” Obviously not the Conservatives, but why don’t Labour or the Liberal Democrats grasp this nettle?Dr Peter Slade Guildford |
| Rich parents get what they’ve paid for when their children move from public schools to university. Oxbridge, Eton, Winchester etc are historic partners in the preparation of privileged youngsters for professions, church and state. In such a setting, there can be no culturally neutral admission conversation (“Solving the riddle of getting into Oxford”, Comment). | Rich parents get what they’ve paid for when their children move from public schools to university. Oxbridge, Eton, Winchester etc are historic partners in the preparation of privileged youngsters for professions, church and state. In such a setting, there can be no culturally neutral admission conversation (“Solving the riddle of getting into Oxford”, Comment). |
| Effective redress in the student and staff mix requires a radical overhaul of two-tier secondary schooling and a levelling of social inequality. Gopal acknowledges how much she learns from a slightly widened Cambridge student mix and how much students learn from each other. For me, this came before and after university, in mainly manual jobs. Once at Oxford, I was disheartened by the aridity of politics, philosophy and economics and thoughtless conformity among teachers and students. What I learned from people of other classes and races was how much I’d missed. For all my acquired fluency in words and argument, I often didn’t know what I was talking about.Greg WilkinsonSwansea | Effective redress in the student and staff mix requires a radical overhaul of two-tier secondary schooling and a levelling of social inequality. Gopal acknowledges how much she learns from a slightly widened Cambridge student mix and how much students learn from each other. For me, this came before and after university, in mainly manual jobs. Once at Oxford, I was disheartened by the aridity of politics, philosophy and economics and thoughtless conformity among teachers and students. What I learned from people of other classes and races was how much I’d missed. For all my acquired fluency in words and argument, I often didn’t know what I was talking about.Greg WilkinsonSwansea |
| Is it not time that our heavily subsidised universities restricted entry to those students who have passed through the state education system? Let those who pay for private secondary education also pay for private university education.Alan G StowTring | Is it not time that our heavily subsidised universities restricted entry to those students who have passed through the state education system? Let those who pay for private secondary education also pay for private university education.Alan G StowTring |
| We must remember that Oxford and Cambridge are still the centres of a vast network of privilege that excludes most of the nation’s talent and distorts the whole education system. | We must remember that Oxford and Cambridge are still the centres of a vast network of privilege that excludes most of the nation’s talent and distorts the whole education system. |
| The main symptom, apart from the domination of public life by the 7%, is the chronic mismanagement and underfunding of further and adult education, the system on which the life chances of those who don’t go to university depend. The 7% don’t use the system and don’t understand it. Unfortunately, they do control the education system.Jeremy CushingExeter | The main symptom, apart from the domination of public life by the 7%, is the chronic mismanagement and underfunding of further and adult education, the system on which the life chances of those who don’t go to university depend. The 7% don’t use the system and don’t understand it. Unfortunately, they do control the education system.Jeremy CushingExeter |