Oxbridge needs to guarantee places for the best state school pupils | Owen Jones

December 7, 2018, 4:14 am

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Figures show eight top schools feed Oxford and Cambridge. I know how the system works against those from state schools

Oxbridge does not represent Britain’s best or the brightest: let’s just get that out of the way. Many of the country’s most intelligent, thoughtful and perceptive people do not attend either Oxford or Cambridge. Both institutions are instead, disproportionately, attended by the best performing slice of the most economically privileged teenagers in the country. So the figures released today, which elicit a depressing sense of deja vu, that eight top schools send as many pupils to Oxbridge as three-quarters of all schools and colleges put together, might be shocking, but they are unsurprising. So are the findings that top performing state school students are much less likely to apply than their private school equivalents, or that private school pupils were seven times more likely to win a place than comprehensive students.

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Cambridge gives role to academic accused of racist stereotyping

December 7, 2018, 10:27 am

≫ Next: How to fix Oxbridge’s biased admissions system | Letters

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University professors among hundreds who object to award of research job to Noah Carl

University of Cambridge professors and academics from around the world have criticised the appointment of a social scientist whose work they say has stoked “racist, xenophobic, fascist and anti-immigration rhetoric”.

A letter protesting about the appointment of Noah Carl to a prestigious research fellowship at St Edmund’s College claims that Carl’s work focuses on “academically discredited lines of inquiry” involving race and genetics.

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How to fix Oxbridge’s biased admissions system | Letters

December 10, 2018, 9:14 am

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Readers discuss ways to make entry to Oxford and Cambridge fairer to students from state schools

The Sutton Trust, when rightly calling for Oxford and Cambridge universities to “make greater use of contextual data in their admissions process” does not go far enough (Eight top schools dominate entry to Oxbridge, 7 December). A slim chance of success is not the only reason “high-flying pupils from state schools” are far less likely to apply for an Oxbridge place. Fear of humiliation in an interview designed to trip up all but the best prepared must play a significant role; those interviews must focus more on what the candidate knows, and how knowledge gaps can be filled. If private schools have to rely on “personalised mentoring and university preparation classes”, what chance do pupils coming from underfunded state schools have?

“Top” universities should not be choosing candidates schooled in their requirements and traditions, but offering opportunities to the genuinely talented, who gain good grades in spite of their backgrounds. A pupil with three grade Bs at A-level from a school in an impoverished area probably has more talent and innate ability than a pupil from a privileged background even if A-level grades are higher!

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Humiliation, homoeroticism and animal cruelty: inside the frathouse

December 10, 2018, 5:10 am

≫ Next: Women and girls less likely to be considered for 'brainy' tasks – study

≪ Previous: How to fix Oxbridge’s biased admissions system | Letters

Photographer Andrew Moisey uncovered ritual hazing, extreme drunkenness and toxic masculinity on one college campus – from men destined to be America’s future leaders

Last year in the US, four freshm an students died as a direct result of hazing rituals during college fraternity initiation ceremonies. All the deaths occurred during or just after drinking bouts in which the victims consumed vast amounts of spirits in a short space of time while older students egged them on. One of the deceased, Maxwell Gruver, 19, a student at Louisiana State University, was found to have had a blood-alcohol level over .49 g/dl at the time of his death– just .31 is considered life-threatening.

“Nobody can physically drink that much ... You have to be forced to drink it,” his mother told ABC news. “It’s senseless. I mean, how is making your brother do all these things, and humiliating somebody, a brotherhood?”

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Women and girls less likely to be considered for 'brainy' tasks – study

December 10, 2018, 1:00 pm

≫ Next: Who’s the minister who could kill or save a university? Oh dear, a Thatcherite | Peter Scott

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Research reveals females deemed intellectually inferior, with prejudice present present in children as well as adults

Women and girls are less likely to be seen as suited to brainy tasks, researchers have found, in the latest study to shed light on gender biases.

Female students do better at school and are more likely to go to university than their male peers. However, the latest study reveals that females are deemed intellectually inferior, and that such prejudices are present not only in adults of both sexes but in children too.

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Who’s the minister who could kill or save a university? Oh dear, a Thatcherite | Peter Scott

December 10, 2018, 10:45 pm

≫ Next: Bohemian private school in area of child poverty divides residents

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Chris Skidmore believes in the smallest possible state. Is he going to rescue higher education from market meltdown?

We are now on our third universities minister since the Conservatives shed their pesky Liberal Democrat partners following the 2015 election. The first two were victims of the Brexit Moloch. First up was Jo Johnson, who piloted the Higher Education and Research Act through parliament, only to be rewarded with relegation as minister for London. He resigned in the summer and is now a fully signed-up supporter of the “people’s vote”.

Next up was Sam Gyimah, who in the end found the contradiction between his responsibility to do the best by universities and the damage Brexit would cause too much to take and also resigned. He, too, supports a second referendum.

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Bohemian private school in area of child poverty divides residents

December 10, 2018, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: ‘Hardest time of the year’: the students who will spend Christmas alone

≪ Previous: Who’s the minister who could kill or save a university? Oh dear, a Thatcherite | Peter Scott

Ex-Londoners accused of creating elite community in Margate and ‘writing off’ local people

The migration of east London artists to the Kent seaside town of Margate has seen travel writers and property developers alike dub it Shoreditch-on-Sea. Central to this nomenclature has been Margate’s down-at-heel Cliftonville West ward, with its affordable six-bedroom former B&Bs, plentiful studio space and urban grit.

This seaside suburb is now set to see fee-paying bohemian education added to the mix, with the opening of a “democratic” fee-paying school, where the pupils make the rules and decide what they learn.

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‘Hardest time of the year’: the students who will spend Christmas alone

December 10, 2018, 11:15 pm

≫ Next: How we made Horrible Histories

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When university halls empty as students flock to their families, care leavers face a different festive season

Luke Collinson, a 19-year-old care leaver, knows he has defied all the odds by enrolling at Manchester University this year. So when his fellow students disappear this weekend to celebrate Christmas with their families, leaving him in a silent hall of residence, he insists he won’t be feeling sorry for himself.

At 15, after being unable to go to school for years because of family problems, Collinson taught himself to read. Shortly afterwards he was taken into care, and despite being predicted Us and Fs, with the help of a social services laptop he passed 10 GCSEs with good grades.

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How we made Horrible Histories

December 11, 2018, 2:18 am

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‘If someone getting wee poured over them helps people learn some facts, we’re doing our job right’

The seed was sown when my son Jack – then 10 and a massive fan of the books – said: “You do history programmes, Dad, why don’t you make Horrible Histories into TV?” I spent several years trying to persuade my colleagues, that a comedy history show for children was an idea worth backing. CBBC eventually did. Nearly 10 years, seven series and 2,000 sketches later, it’s been a wonderful adventure.

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'Blatant scare tactics': Iowa university leads crackdown on student unions

December 11, 2018, 3:00 am

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Grinnell College filed an appeal that allows the NLRB to revisit a 2016 ruling that student workers have the right to unionize

A liberal arts college in Iowa is taking a hardline anti-union approach that could put student unions at private American colleges and universities in jeopardy across the whole country.

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Pupil brings legal action against school's isolation policy

December 11, 2018, 4:31 am

≫ Next: Christmas is time for families not homework, pleads Italian minister

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Outwood Grange Academies Trust’s use of ‘consequences rooms’ for hours at a time has drawn criticism from parents

Legal proceedings have been lodged in the high court against an academy trust for its use of so-called isolation units to discipline pupils.

Lawyers have applied for a judicial review of Outwood Grange Academies Trust’s (OGAT) use of “consequence rooms” containing booths in which children sit in silence for hours as punishment for breaking school rules. OGAT runs 30 schools across Yorkshire, the Humber and the east Midlands.

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Christmas is time for families not homework, pleads Italian minister

December 11, 2018, 6:39 am

≫ Next: Why a historic strike by Chicago charter school teachers matters | Micah Uetricht

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Marco Bussetti to tell teachers festive period is ‘time of rest for students and families’

Italy’s education minister has urged schools not to overburden children with homework during the Christmas holiday so they can spend more time with their families.

Marco Bussetti, from the far-right League, said he would send a circular to schools over the next few days asking teachers to reduce homework and reminding them the festive period is “a time of rest for students and families”.

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Why a historic strike by Chicago charter school teachers matters | Micah Uetricht

December 11, 2018, 7:14 am

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Teachers across the US learned this year they can push back by withholding their labor. The spread of Acero’s example to other charters is a matter of ‘when’, not ‘if’

On a freezing picket line Friday on Chicago’s north-west side, Elly Oldendorf, a second-grade teacher at Carlos Fuentes elementary in the Acero charter school network, was on day four of a strike. Bundled in winter gear, her coworkers behind her chanting about school funding to the tune of a Rihanna song, Oldendorf told me a story.

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Comedians asked to sign 'behavioural agreement' for Soas gig

December 11, 2018, 10:02 am

≫ Next: Trying to improve racial diversity in the media | Letters

≪ Previous: Why a historic strike by Chicago charter school teachers matters | Micah Uetricht

Organiser apologises ‘for the misunderstanding’ after comic pulls out of fundraiser

Comedians invited to perform at a benefit gig at Soas University of London have been sent a “behavioural agreement” that forbids them from tackling any topic in a way that is not “respectful and kind”.

Konstantin Kisin, a comedian and free speech campaigner, pulled out of next month’s event after being sent the contract.

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Trying to improve racial diversity in the media | Letters

December 12, 2018, 9:49 am

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Bob del Quiaro and Wendy Sloane on journalism courses for BAME students. Plus Paul Doran says sportspeople should walk off the pitch whenever a racist incident occurs

Daniel Taylor is right to wonder why there is a lack of ethnic diversity in sports journalism in Britain (Why should someone like Raheem Sterling be seen as ‘fair game’?, 11 December). Many young BAME people, especially black people, do not believe they can get into any kind of journalism. When still at school, and advisers are talking about what kind of jobs they might try for, such youngsters tend to be categorised as so lacking in written and spoken English that they’re unfit for media work and have no chance of ever attaining sufficient skills to compete in that area with white kids.

Thus discouraged, there is shrugging of shoulders, glum belief that journalism is just another line of work that’s “wall-to-wall whitey”. I heard that phrase a number of times when, around 1990, I was teaching on a one-year course (Introduction to Journalism for Black and Asian Students) at a college in south London. The course, whose students had a minimum age of 19, was to give people who had missed out on some formal qualifications at school a chance to start in journalism.

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Struggling UK universities warn staff of possible job cuts

December 11, 2018, 11:46 am

≫ Next: Two more Japanese medical schools admit discriminating against women

≪ Previous: Trying to improve racial diversity in the media | Letters

Deteriorating balance sheets and political uncertainty blamed for redundancy threats

Universities are warning staff to prepare for redundancies in the new year as a result of deteriorating balance sheets and lowered forecasts for student recruitment, coupled with the uncertainty of Brexit and sudden shifts in government policy.

In recent days more than half a dozen universities have told staff there could be job cuts in 2019, including members of the research-intensive Russell Group such as Cardiff University, while others are privately bracing for cuts later in the year.

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Two more Japanese medical schools admit discriminating against women

December 11, 2018, 7:36 pm

≫ Next: Stefania Giannini: 'Strong universities lessen social tensions'

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Sexism row deepens as one university claims women ‘mature faster’ and male applicants need extra help

A sexism row engulfing Japan’s medical schools has deepened after two more universities admitted discriminating against female applicants, months after it was revealed that Tokyo Medical University had manipulated exam scores to favour male candidates.

Juntendo University and Kitasato University, both in Tokyo, said this week that they had set a lower pass mark for men than for women in order to secure a sufficient number male graduates to enter the medical profession.

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Stefania Giannini: 'Strong universities lessen social tensions'

December 11, 2018, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Female scholars are marginalised on Wikipedia because it's written by men | Victoria Leonard

≪ Previous: Two more Japanese medical schools admit discriminating against women

The UN’s top education official on how collaborative universities can help our turbulent world

Universities are being pulled in different directions according to Stefania Giannini, the UN’s top education official. They need to become more global to reflect the international mobility of graduate employees, at the same time as the concept of globalisation is stoking social tensions in many countries. And they’re expected to collaborate, just as competition for students and research funding is at its fiercest.

“Maybe now it’s time to go back to a universal perspective,” Giannini says. “Human dignity, respect, tolerance, and exchange of knowledge of different cultures and religions. This is the dimension where education, and specifically I should say higher education, can play a role.”

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Female scholars are marginalised on Wikipedia because it's written by men | Victoria Leonard

December 11, 2018, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: What did I learn at private school? They should be abolished

≪ Previous: Stefania Giannini: 'Strong universities lessen social tensions'

I’m writing entries about celebrated female figures to make male-dominated online spaces more inclusive

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia edited collectively by a global community, arguably determines the narrative about who has power and influence in our world. It is the largest global source of information and the fifth most visited website in the world; the English-language Wikipedia had more than 7.7bn page views in October.

But Wikipedia has a gender bias that really bites: between 84-91% of editors are men. The vast majority of people who create this incredible knowledge resource come from a very narrow demographic. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, 83% of biographies on Wikipedia are about men.

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What did I learn at private school? They should be abolished

December 12, 2018, 6:16 am

≫ Next: University acceptance rates for students with lower grades on the rise

≪ Previous: Female scholars are marginalised on Wikipedia because it's written by men | Victoria Leonard

Private schools like my alma mater St Paul’s entrench inequality. Abolishing them would be a progressive step

The educational dominance of private schools is once again in the news, following new research which shows that eight top UK schools, including my own secondary school St Paul’s, get as many pupils into Oxbridge as three-quarters of all schools and colleges together.

Cue yet another round of soul-searching about how to close the gap. Last year, the Sutton Trust proposed an “Open Access” scheme with subsidised places for low or medium income students. Others go on the offensive: the 2017 Labour manifesto declared the party would remove private schools’ VAT exemptions to fund free school meals for primary school children.

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