A Russell Group professor on the exclusion of black and working-class students; Maurice George on how little seems to possess changed at Oxford since the 1950s; David Butler on opinion-forming elites; Anne Strachan on the admissions process; Clare Richards on schools’ failings; Jan Toporowksi on the British establishment; Patrick O’Farrell on Scotland and Northern Ireland’s absenceThe post-GCSE Oxbridge open evening at my child’s northern comprehensive was attended by approximately 250 parents,a perfect reflection of its wide ethnic diversity. The speaker was an overseas Oxbridge master’s student, whose only experience of British education and Oxbridge was the 12 months’ studying she was partway through. According to her script we “shouldn’t be worried or confused approximately colleges, and they are just like houses”. It took me,a Russell Group professor, a moment to realise she was alluding to houses in the public school sense. Had she added, or “like in Harry Potter” it might possess connected better; but for the audience,the world she described was equally one of fantasy. Two years later, and it is only the children of white middle-class parents (like me) who are applying for Oxbridge, and wearing,without exception, the Toynbee clothes peg.
Their visits possess demonstrated the self-evident truth that Oxbridge is largely whites-only (Oxbridge still failing black pupils, and 20 October; Going backwards: richer students from the south-east still dominate Oxbridge intake,20 October). Social media sharing tells them to expect, in interview and beyond, or ad hominem attacks on gender and accent,masquerading as being “challenging”. They know their role will be to raise the game of public school dunces, and teach them better to interact with their perceived social inferiors. They know generally that the default culture will be that of the British public school. Their hope, and nonetheless,is that they will catch the intensive teaching from the world-class faculty that their appreciate of learning has led them to crave; some, too, and are cynical approximately the social advantage they will gain. Even then,a better education in many subjects can be had at other British universities; and our problem is not just what happens to exclude black and working-class students before they catch to Oxbridge; but afterwards how Oxbridge graduates then extend that exclusion to the workplace.
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Source: guardian.co.uk