All that glitters
Are Oxford and Cambridge still the glittering prizes for
students?
Victoria Neumark reports
Autumn, and university entrance is on everybody's mind.
Should you take a shot and go for Oxford or Cambridge? With
Gordon Brown the first prime minister not to have attended
Oxbridge since 1945, have the rose-tinted glasses fallen
from the eyes of today's school-leavers?
Certainly the “ivory towers” no longer gleam so brightly
for a small but significant stream of individualists
heading the other way, be it to US universities, business
opportunities or a decided preference for vibrant
nightlife, “a life you can call your own ” and “getting
away from all those public schoolies you've been with”.
You can catch up with some of these rebels on social
networking site Facebook. There you will find the We Hate
Oxbridge Society, the “I never wanted to go to Oxbridge
anyway” group (21 members), the Oxbridge Rejects are
Cooly-Cool group and the “I got rejected from Oxbridge 2007
but who cares it's their loss anyway” group.
Who cares indeed? Looking at admission numbers, Oxford
alone gets almost 14,000 applications each year, all from
straight-A students, for 3,500 places - so a few less
hardly matters. Currently independent-school applicants
dominate the ancient universities, but they are under
government pressure to increase their state-school intake.
This means, says Martin Stephen of St Paul's, “We are in
danger of giving a place at a top university as a
compensation for disadvantage, when it should be a reward
for achievement.”
At the moment, that is not happening and top schools such
as Eton, Wycombe Abbey, St Paul's, St Mary's Ascot,
Winchester, Westminster and North London Collegiate and the
Royal Grammar School, Guildford, have doubled numbers going
to the oldest universities in the last five years. Their
staff can afford to agree with Tony Little, Master of Eton,
that “while there are always (and always have been)
examples of strange decisions, boys (and the school) see
the admissions process as challenging but fair.”
Others feel less certain. The internet is abuzz with
resentment from rejected candidates and their families, as
numbers going to Oxbridge from such respected schools as
Manchester High, Nottingham High and Radley decline. Says
Pip Marshall of Nottingham, “My own stepdaughter would, on
first analysis, be heavily discriminated against as she is
female, has graduate parents and attends a private school.
What this doesn't state is that her parents are separated,
have retrained several times to keep in average jobs and
she has gone to private school on a scholarship with
herself and the rest of us making sacrifices. But are these
the type of middle-class, stereotypical values we all now
love to hate?”
Geoff Lucas, secretary general of the Headmasters' and
Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) is confident that
“Oxbridge will maintain absolute standards” - perhaps a
coded message that there is not much to worry about for
private-school parents. As he added wryly, “The more they
develop additional tests on ability and achievement for
individual subjects, the more that will favour the kind of
parents who want the best for their children - who are
often the ones who send their children to an independent
school.”
A note of caution here from Anthony Seldon, Master of
Wellington College, that it “is the children who are going
to university, not the parent. The job of a good parent is
to help the child identify and achieve what they themselves
want.” The “I went to Oxbridge so my children should do,
too,” mentality doesn't necessarily work.
For Oxford and Cambridge do not appeal to all. Some of the
courses seem antiquated, as do dress codes and quaint
rituals. The cities, if beautiful, are small and sleepy
compared to the buzzy night-life of Manchester, Leeds or
Birmingham. The high workload (one or two essays a week)
and intensive contact with academic staff which attract
some students repel others. Are these venerable seats of
learning now “uncool”?
Nicholas Shrimpton, deputy principal of Lady Margaret Hall,
Oxford reflects. “We still get lots of clever independent
school applicants, and they seem 'cool' to me both at
interview and once they are here. But I suspect that some
(especially boys) who might have applied in the past are
put off by the current exam treadmill of GCSE, AS and A2 in
successive years, and the feeling that you have to have a
'perfect' record at the first two of these (lots of A*s at
GCSE, 3 As at AS) to stand a chance. In this sense the
Oxbridge applicants might seem geeky - they apparently need
to have been impeccably well-behaved and hard-working
between the ages of 15 and 18.”
Like many, he sees new forms of testing as positive for
both colleges and also candidates. “The return of Oxford
entrance exams, or rather 'aptitude tests', in History and
English this year, may help the eccentric, or naughty, or
rebellious, or late-developing candidate get another
chance. I welcome this because I'd like a few more
indvidualists, rather than slaves of the system.”
That said, Cambridge University recently published a list
of 20 A-levels which are “a less effective preparation for
our courses.” Don't take more than one of these if you want
to go to Cambridge. They include sports science, media or
theatre studies, accounting, business studies, design and
technology A levels.
Oxbridge college interviews loom in December. The interview
process has been described as “notoriously eccentric,”
including questions like: “Here is a piece of bark, please
talk about it” (biological sciences, Oxford); “Put a
monetary value on this teapot” (PPE, Cambridge); and “At
what point is a person 'dead'?” (medicine, Cambridge).
Mike Nicholson, director of undergraduate admissions at
Oxford advises applicants that they “need to know their
subject and be clear as to their motivation and interest.
They should have enough understanding of relevant material
and be able to talk confidently for 10 minutes each on two
or three different aspects, and they should certainly keep
a copy of, and re-read, any work that they submit. Don't
panic, don't feel that you have to know everything about
your subject, and don't feel you need a dozen new interview
outfits to be successful. Just relax, and be yourself.”
Adds
Nicholas Shrimpton: “Be keen.”
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