Posts Tagged ‘education’
1 item.
I must say I did smile lightly in wonder at the BBC’s Mike Baker who staunchly rejected any suggestion of “inverted class war” against the Middle & Upper Classes in UK University selection.
That may well be the case but he then goes on to make some glaring contradictory statements. For example:
But they are not using crude measures to promote less able pupils from inner-city comprehensives ahead of more able students from independent or grammar schools.
No, they are doing it because they just want to be sure they are getting the best students, selected on merit, and chosen because they are most likely to thrive at the university.
Followed by:
Oxford [University] has a tough job on admissions. Almost all of its 15,000 applicants are predicted to get at least three A grades at A-level. So how do its admissions tutors make sure they are picking the best students, irrespective of social background or prior educational experience?
First, Oxford requires most applicants to take a special university entrance exam on top of their A-level studies. Then it interviews some 10,000 students before making 3,500 offers for 3,200 places.
Because it is as interested in future potential as in past attainment, Oxford collects information on the applicants’ backgrounds against five criteria. It then awards students a “flag” if they meet these criteria, which include: whether their school has below average GCSE or A-level grades, whether they live in the poorest postcode neighbourhoods, whether they have taken part in summer schools aimed at pupils from deprived homes, and whether they have even been in care.
If they meet at least three criteria, they are “flagged up” to the individual college admissions tutors.
I honestly had to re-read both statements several times to try and work out quite what exactly he was trying to say. Was he saying that Universities select on merit or was he saying that they’re chosen on the basis of social background?
