Who is it that is discriminating - universities or the state school students?
Leading universities are guilty of bias towards middle-class teenagers leading to a "huge waste" of the talents of children from poor backgrounds, a Government minister said yesterday.
John Denham, the Universities Secretary, said some of the "most sought-after" institutions were shunning bright children from poor homes.
In a veiled attack on universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, which have the fewest students from state schools, Mr Denham said academics should do more to "identify and nurture the young students of the future".
"Improving participation is not about political dogma or hitting statistically satisfying targets," he said. "It is about ending a huge waste of talent."...
At Cambridge, just 57.9 per cent of students are from state schools, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency. Oxford was set a "benchmark" of taking 75.4 per cent its students from state schools, but last year managed only 53.7 per cent. (The Telegraph)
This story is incomplete, and shows how statistics can easily be abused. It says that only 57.9% of Cambridge students and 53.7% of Oxford students come from state schools, leading John Denahm to claim that they are ignoring state school applicants. But what percentage of the applicants to Oxford and Cambridge came from state school pupils? It is the difference between them that matters.John Denham, the Universities Secretary, said some of the "most sought-after" institutions were shunning bright children from poor homes.
In a veiled attack on universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, which have the fewest students from state schools, Mr Denham said academics should do more to "identify and nurture the young students of the future".
"Improving participation is not about political dogma or hitting statistically satisfying targets," he said. "It is about ending a huge waste of talent."...
At Cambridge, just 57.9 per cent of students are from state schools, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency. Oxford was set a "benchmark" of taking 75.4 per cent its students from state schools, but last year managed only 53.7 per cent. (The Telegraph)
It might be more of a "dog bites man" story to say that "Poor biased against Universities" rather than "man bites dog" type of headline John Denham provided today, but without the other statistics I mentioned above, the ones we are given are meaningless. Just because only 58% of Cambridge's students come from state schools isn't a bad thing in and of itself. If only 58% of it's applicants were from state schools, then it's probably about right. No university is going to deliberately choose less intelligent students simply down to class snobbery. They want the best and brightest that they can get, and since they receive no more money whether or not they take students from state schools, that's who they're going to pick - the best of the applicants.
To say that they are biased against state school students because they form only a slight majority of the students they take in is absurd. They are going to take the best applicants - whoever they be, wherever they are from.
Source: The Telegraph
