Clegg and Cameron turn on Oxford University over race/wealth status of students

[alexxxxx]

Cameron and Clegg need to sort out social imbalances in education before it gets to the stage where people apply for university.

At university I find that people from private and state schools have different skills.

And I also think that private schools for 6th forms are a waste of time in terms of grades and working, it's about the person at that point.

[FlyingJesus]

What, that makes perfect sense to me? Why give others a disadvantage just because they cant afford it. And if you're being charged the full whack then obviously your income can support that?

Why give you an advantage over others just because your parents don't earn as much? There is next to no financial incentive to do well these days because if you're at the lowest level with a rubbish job you just get everything free anyway

On the main point, the report said that Oxford or Cambridge (can't remember which) had only admitted 1 black person last year and that's where it stemmed from, but that's actually not the case at all - only 1 on census stated themselves as being of black Caribbean descent, but there were a number of students who identified themselves as black African, black British and so forth. Giving a tangible advantage to students simply BECAUSE they're poor/black/disabled/etc is far worse than not allowing them in due to their exam results as it displaces a potential student who has actually got the grades and worked to be there

[sophiethenerd]

I am disabled (slightly) and If I was just let in because of that I would feel that was wrong. When people say not letting a person of a different race in university is racist (even if they were not let in due to grades) then the people are being racist as race has nothing to do with university places.

[Mark]

Imo, leave the guys alone and let them do their job, they can't make everyone happy but we've got another few years with them in party so just accept it lol.

[AgnesIO]

Imo, leave the guys alone and let them do their job, they can't make everyone happy but we've got another few years with them in party so just accept it lol.

Not if the coalition ends.

They are targeting Oxbridge to cover their mistakes.

They are manipulating data, then ************ about it.

[Moh]

Seams that they're trying to get on the good side of students.

Doing this will only cause the university's to accept poor people over than people who have the grades just to please the government. I still don't see what the fuss is about the tuition fees. £9,000 a year for two of the best university's in the world is a bargain. For that standard in any other country would cost at least double that amount. They don't charge that amount just so poor students can't get in, they charge that because they need to. Some of the professors at Cambridge are on around £60k+ a year, they still need paying.

If I was poor and had the grades to get in, why should I have any priority to people who have the money and the same grades? That's just hypercritical.

When you apply, you don't even give them your financial details?

[AgnesIO]

Seams that they're trying to get on the good side of students.

Doing this will only cause the university's to accept poor people over than people who have the grades just to please the government. I still don't see what the fuss is about the tuition fees. £9,000 a year for two of the best university's in the world is a bargain. For that standard in any other country would cost at least double that amount. They don't charge that amount just so poor students can't get in, they charge that because they need to. Some of the professors at Cambridge are on around £60k+ a year, they still need paying.

If I was poor and had the grades to get in, why should I have any priority to people who have the money and the same grades? That's just hypercritical.

When you apply, you don't even give them your financial details?

9k for virtually every other uni in the UK on the other hand, isn't.

[Moh]

9k for virtually every other uni in the UK on the other hand, isn't.

When the cap was £6k, not many unis actually changed that. Same with the cap of £9k.

[Robbie]

When you apply, you don't even give them your financial details?

They base it off your school and college and where you live to a certain extent.

[alexxxxx]

When the cap was £6k, not many unis actually changed that. Same with the cap of £9k.

the cap has never been £6k, it was ~£3.5k and a few years before that £1k.