THE MOST SUCCESSFUL SCHOOLS AT GETTING PUPILS INTO OXBRIDGE
MOST SUCCESSFUL SCHOOLS AT GETTING PUPILS INTO OXBRIDGE
Independents, unsurprisingly, dominate
Comment
Professor Les Ebdon, despite the objections of many Tory MPs, looks likely to be the new head of OFFA. Tories believe that he will push universities too hard to admit under qualified state school pupils or, to put it another way, indulge in social engineering. Ebdon believes that we should deal with the world as it is, not as we would like it to be, shorthand for- the disadvantaged get poor qualifications so universities should reduce entry qualifications for them and instead spot their potential. Not a good idea runs the counter argument , spotting potential is not easy and in any case we have to compete with the best in the world, so dumbing down probably isn’t such a good idea . Better to raise the quality of pupils coming out of state schools, even if this takes time. Rob Wilson MP , giving his views representing the Fair Access to University Group, says that intervention to improve standards at the pre-university secondary school stage is the best way to improve fairness, recognise talent and ensure that students, regardless of background, are able to access top institutions. It seems likely that OFFA will now find itself under political attack.
43 % of graduates from Ebdon’s own university (Bedfordshire) have no job six months after graduating, so indications are that he has no access to a silver bullet to improve social mobility or to ease access to good jobs (or any job ,come to think of it!). And doubtless more pressure will now be put on Oxbridge to admit more pupils from state schools and to invest more in their already substantial outreach programmes. On top of which they will need to offer remedial programmes for undergraduates in the first year to get them up to the standard required to cope with their courses( and, in the process ,increase the costs of their courses, so reducing the number of places available-how much sense does that make?).
So, which schools generally have the best record in getting pupils into Oxbridge? Here is the top ten based on the latest available figures:
North London Collegiate School (40) (42%)
St Paul’s Girls’ School (40) (42%)
Westminster School (50) (39%)
Magdalen College School (25) (32%)
Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls (30) (29%)
The Stephen Perse Foundation (20) (29%)
St Paul’s School (45) (27%)
Guildford High School (25) (26%
City of London School for Girls (20) (26%)
Wycombe Abbey School (20) (25%)
There isn’t a single non-selective state school in the top hundred .42% of the end of KS4 pupils in both North London Collegiate and St Pauls Girls gained entry to Oxbridge, which is extraordinary. Eton, for the record, sent 60 boys to Oxbridge representing 22% of their cohort. Interestingly, though, increasing numbers of pupils from the top independents are choosing Ivy League Universities ahead of Oxbridge. So, will Oxbridge be in a position to compete at all with the Ivy League in the future, given the access agenda? A question that Ebdon may need to answer when he takes up his new job.
(Source Deposited Papers-Parliament 2012)- 2006 GCSE cohort progressing to Oxbridge 2010
BRITISH COUNCIL- ASSISTING OUR COMPETITORS?
David Blackie, of the Language Business, tells us that today, and for the next three days, the Australian International Education Conference takes place in Adelaide. At this event two of the British Council’s “Education Intelligence” section will be presenting their “Students in Motion” report series.
“They’ll look specifically at the forecasting of Chinese and Malaysian student mobility to Australia and will examine the factors which influence this student flow.” Riveting stuff, no doubt… but arent we competing with Australasian HE Institutions in the global student market.. and does this constitute best use of taxpayers money in straitened times? I think we should be told.
MODERN UNIVERSITIES AND SOCIAL MOBILITY-ITS NOT JUST ABOUT OXBRIDGE
Universities Driving Social Mobility? Beyond the Oxbridge Obsession
Modern universities hit back on social mobility agenda
Comment
Social Mobility, or lack of it, is high on the Coalition Governments agenda. Alan Milburn and Simon Hughes are on the case and the main line of attack is universities. If you improve access to Higher Education then surely social mobility will improve. Not so say many experts. The issue is far more complex and defies such simplistic solutions. . And universities worry that such social engineering will make them less competitive in the global market. There is also an obsession with Oxbridge and getting more disadvantaged pupils into Oxbridge or a small group of elite universities, while ‘modern’ universities might be more appropriate for their needs. A new report ‘Universities Driving Social Mobility – Beyond the Oxbridge Obsession’ applauds the Government’s commitment to promote a society in which people can improve their lot in life, including by studying at university. However, it warns that in spite of this aspiration, the Government’s approach to the role it wants universities to play in driving social mobility is very narrow. It concludes that it’s time to move ‘beyond the Oxbridge obsession’. The report says that the Governments vision is very limited. In effect, it is improving access for a small number of pupils to a small number of top universities at a time when they are reducing university places. This will not lead to a step change in social mobility. And using free school meals as a proxy for socio-economic disadvantage is a ‘highly imperfect’ measure.
By ensuring that there are more educational opportunities the Government can assist social mobility but the report stresses that this requires investment across all education, at all levels, including, particularly, the early years. It states ‘High Quality and Free Early Years services can reduce education inequalities’ and early interventions can reduce the attainment gap between children from different backgrounds. The report says it would be much better to incentivise ‘modern’ universities so that they can offer life changing opportunities to a diverse range of pupils from different backgrounds and at different ages. Modern Universities, the report says, provide places for those whose families have never had a member at university and recruit Black, Asian and ethnic minority students as well as students from a wide range of ages, offering flexible and part time courses. The danger is that Government policy and its obsession with elite universities will divert resources away from the more socially inclusive universities to the more exclusive ones, therefore undermining modern universities growing and potential role in promoting social mobility.
ARE MIDDLE CLASS PARENTS LOSING CONFIDENCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION?
Comment
The publication of Lord Browne’s Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance marked the beginning of an intense period of policy debate about higher education which is not yet concluded. The Government is shortly to launch its delayed White Paper (probably this week ) amid concerns that the current funding model, with most universities charging the top rate for tuition fees, is unsustainable and cannot be covered by the Treasury .
The introduction, then raising of Tuition fees was always going to bring a spotlight onto the educational offer at our universities. Middle Class parents often support their children financially, either fully or in part, at university to stop them getting into debt and therefore take more interest in what their children actually do at these institutions. Recent research from Edge, the charity dedicated to raising the status of practical education, found that Britain’s middle income parents of children aged 11-18 years old have changed their education aspirations for their child, with many saying university doesn’t provide the best return on investment. Short terms, ‘reading weeks’, (a modern trend that sees Departments effectively closing for a week mid-term) reduced teaching time ,less one to one tuition, along with fewer seminars , assignments and lectures leave the impression of a poorer overall offer and some parents and students clearly perceive declining standards . Certainly parents who have been to university compare their experiences with those of their children and can spot the glaring differences.The focus on research and the funding tied to research has meant that most universities see teaching students as a second order priority. Liberal Arts and other more flexible courses in US universities are attracting more of our best home grown students. Yale has seen UK student enrolments double in five years, with other Ivy League colleges seeing similar increases. Rapid Expansion in university places in the 1980s and 1990s has not been matched over time by funding, the effects of which cannot be concealed. Some students have demonstrated against this perceived decline and the quality of their courses. Student complaints against universities in England and Wales have reached record levels according to the higher education ombudsman’s (Office of the Independent Adjudicator) annual report. The independent adjudicator’s office says complaints rose by 33 % last year. The OIA received more than 2,000 enquiries last year and a record 1,341 complaints . Around half were found not be justified, although there has been a small increase in justified complaints. The OIA found that two universities-Southampton and Westminster were non-compliant ie they failed to comply with the adjudicators rulings.
It is clear that the some universities are finding it difficult to adjust to a changing environment and pay too little attention to the teaching and support they give to their students. The goal posts have shifted. and they are now operating in a world that requires greater transparency and accountability, both in terms of admissions policy , the quality of teaching and course content and the employability of their students.
http://www.oiahe.org.uk/downloads/OIA_annual_report_2010.pdf
EDUCATION UK WEB SITE-BIT OF A SHAMBLES REALLY
BRITISH COUNCIL RUN WEB SITE
Sowing confusion?
COMMENT
Visit the Education UK website, run by the British Council designed to help students abroad to choose university courses here. It’s a mess. Look at the search facility on the right hand side of the home page. Choose, for example, Degree Courses as the course category and Applied and Pure Sciences as the subject area. The system will find 179 results and list the first ten by default. What are these top ten institutions and how are they ordered ? See for yourself, and put yourself in the shoes of one of these inquisitive students. The site, when I sought information, as above, listed the University of Southampton twice and the University of Nottingham three times in the top ten. With the Metropolitan University, Manchester topping the list. There was no logic whatever to the order of institutions or explanation as to why institutions appeared more than once. Nor were they in Alphabetical order. The FCO is boasting that there were 46 million visits to BC sites over a year, so those accessing the sites could get some idea of ‘British Values.’ Oh Dear!
FURTHER EDUCATION -FUNDING AND QUALITY UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT
Comment
The publication of Lord Browne’s Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance marked the beginning of an intense period of policy debate about higher education which is not yet concluded. The Government is shortly to launch its delayed White Paper (probably in late June) amid concerns that the current funding model, with most universities charging the top rate for tuition fees, is unsustainable and cannot be covered by the Treasury . The introduction, then raising of Tuition fees was always going to bring a spotlight onto the educational offer at our universities. Middle Class parents often support their children financially, either fully or in part, at university to stop them getting into debt and therefore take more interest in what their children actually do at these institutions. Short terms, ‘reading weeks’, (a modern trend that sees Departments effectively closing for a week, mid-term) reduced teaching time ,less one to one tuition, along with fewer seminars , assignments and lectures, leave the impression of a poorer overall offer and some parents and students clearly perceive declining standards . The focus on research and the funding tied to research has meant that most universities see teaching students as a second order priority. Liberal Arts and other more flexible courses in US universities which appeal to many students, are attracting more of our best home grown students. Enrolments of UK students at Yale University have doubled in five years. Other Ivy League colleges also report significant rises in UK students signing up. Rapid expansion in university places in the 1980s and 1990s has not been matched over time by funding, the effects of which cannot be concealed. Some students have demonstrated against this perceived decline and the quality of their courses. Student complaints against universities in England and Wales have reached record levels according to the higher education ombudsman’s (Office if the Independent Adjudicator) annual report. The independent adjudicator’s office says complaints rose by 33 % last year. The OIA received more than 2,000 enquiries last year and a record 1,341 complaints . Around half were found not be justified, although there has been a small increase in justified complaints. The OIA found that two universities-Southampton and Westminster were non-compliant ie they failed to comply with the adjudicators rulings.
Higher Education institutions must wake up to the fact that they are in transition to a demand led industry in which they must be globally competitive, designing courses that appeal to students with high quality teaching. Although Professor Grayling attracted much flak with the recent launch of the private New College , he probably has a clearer idea than many of his colleagues as to where the sector is heading.
http://www.oiahe.org.uk/downloads/OIA_annual_report_2010.pdf
PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES-RESPONDING TO DEMAND?
PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES
Will HE reforms incentivise more private universities?
Comment
David Willetts, the HE Minister, has held what the Daily Mirror has described as ‘secret’ talks with US private education firms about university reforms. One suspects that he probably didn’t do much to hide the fact that he was talking to private providers. An HE White Paper is expected this month. Expanding the private sector is seen by the government as a way of tackling the chronic financial pressures and lack of places facing the university system. Throughout the world, the number of students in private institutions is growing faster than in publicly-owned ones. The reason is simple: governments cannot afford to pay for the higher education that is required so the private sector has expanded to become “demand absorbing”. With the student population growing to 2.1 million in 2009/10, Universities must be allowed the freedom to expand if they are capable of adequately meeting extra student demand.
Private universities would add extra capacity, when hundreds of thousands of applicants are set to miss out on places. The BIS, in written evidence to the Select Committee, said ‘To ensure a vibrant sector, the Government wants to make it easier for new providers, including local FE colleges and alternative providers, to enter the system on a fair basis. We believe that competition is a great driver of improvement and more providers in the system will mean more and better choice for students and better value for money through new and potentially innovative and lower cost approaches to teaching.’
Unions are worried that the Tories are planning a huge increase in the number of these American-style private colleges. UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: “It is a disgrace that ministers are contemplating giving taxpayers’ money to these characters while starving our public universities and colleges of funds.
“The potential damage to our higher education system is too dangerous to risk allowing the profiteers in.” Labour’s higher education spokesman, Gareth Thomas, said the US-style colleges would aim to undercut universities by offering cheap degrees taught over the internet. He added: “After trebling tuition fees and getting their higher education sums wrong, now the Tories are set to threaten the quality of our universities with plans to let unregulated for-profit universities expand hugely in the UK.”
The revelation that David Willetts had met the US firms – including Apollo Group Inc and Education Management Corporation – came after Labour MP Barry Gardiner questioned the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Mr Gardiner said: “The clear implication is that the Government is considering privatising our education system.”
Private universities are common in the US but there are currently only two in Britain – Buckingham (not for profit) and BPP in London. The BPP University College receives no money from the higher education funding council. As a private university it is also able to set its own level for tuition fees. BPP already has degree-awarding powers. It has 6,500 students taking courses in its law and business schools and a further 30,000 taking accountancy qualifications. It was the first private university college to have been created since Buckingham in the 1970s, which was first created a university college, and then later became the University of Buckingham.Buckingham University being private(ie independent) cannot access the pool of research funding that is available to other (State) universities. Universities though taxpayer funded, are ‘autonomous’ self-governing institutions but that doesn’t mean that they are immune to pressure from the government , for instance over the level of tuition fees they charge, and how many students they admit from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Buckingham consistently tops student satisfaction surveys, although many of its students are foreign nationals and many of its courses run to just two years, as opposed to the normal three years, as in most other English universities (Scotland tend to have four year courses) . Some reformers believe that two year concentrated courses may be the way forward, at least in some subjects, given the complaints of some students that three year courses are not delivering value for money.
Sally Hunt, leader of the UCU lecturers’ union, has claimed that private providers are not accountable to the public and do not deserve to be put in the same league as other universities. However, Hunt provided no evidence in support of her claims.
If the consumers of the service are happy and the courses meet quality benchmarks, operating in a regulated environment, it is hard to see why private universities should not be allowed to compete for students helping to improve capacity in the HE sector to meet demand, while providing at the same time , more choice.
http://www.hepi.ac.uk/455-1969/Private-Providers-in-UK-Higher-Education–Some-Policy-Options.html
IS SOCIAL MOBILITY IMPROVED BY MAKING IT EASIER TO GET INTO UNIVERSITY?
Will getting more pupils into university improve social mobility
Professor Peter Saunders and some myths about social mobility
Comment
The benefits of the rapid expansion of higher education were supposed to be obvious and particularly the assumption that if you get more pupils into university they will get higher level qualifications which in turn will give them access to good jobs in the professions and social mobility will increase . So far so virtuous. Yet despite the rapid expansion in university places over the last generation and many more graduates in the job market, report after report suggests that social mobility has actually stalled. The evidence on social mobility is complex and sometimes contradictory. But as the Social Mobility report released a couple of weeks ago says ‘the broad picture is fairly clear. We currently have relatively low levels of social mobility, both by international standards and compared with the ‘baby boomer’ generation born in the immediate post-war period’. Evidence actually suggests that it is early interventions that have the most effect on social mobility, and the earlier the better. If you try to engineer mobility at the university level you are basically too late.
Professor Peter Saunders pointed out in the 2010 Civitas publication ‘Social Mobility Myths’ that educational qualifications have become what economists call ‘positional goods’. A ‘positional good’ is one whose utility declines, the more people gain access to it. When only 5 per cent of the population had university degrees, for example, a degree was a powerful passport to career success. But when almost half of the population goes to university, a degree becomes commonplace. You may be disadvantaged if you do not have one, but the advantages of being a graduate are severely dissipated. (which may go some way to explaining why 20% of new graduates are unemployed) .– ‘Simply increasing the number of graduates, or the number of people passing A‐levels, or the number of 16 year‐olds staying on at school, or the number of training places on vocational courses, will therefore achieve little in the way of increasing people’s chances of getting a high income or a middle class job. All it will do is devalue the qualifications and trigger a diploma race as people chase ever‐higher qualifications in order to distinguish themselves from the mass of other potential applicants’. So Ministers might argue that making it easier for disadvantaged pupils to access university is a good in itself but can they argue that it will improve social mobility given that the expansion of HE appears not to have affected social mobility ? Professor Saunders is clear on this “The average educational standard of the population may or may not have improved as a result of all this expansion, but what seems certain, is that there has been no significant impact on relative social mobility’
Professor Saunders specifically attacks:
the preoccupation with expanding entry into higher education, even at the expense of academic standards;
the ‘grade inflation’ unleashed by pushing ever-increasing numbers of pupils through GCSEs and A-levels;
the attempt by government to create more middle class jobs (mainly by expanding the size of the public sector);
moves towards ‘positive discrimination’ in university selection designed to make it harder for bright, middle class applicants to get accepted;
the fallacious belief that flattening the income distribution through higher taxes and more generous welfare benefits will promote mobility.
One of the biggest myths he claims is that governments can increase mobility by top-down engineering of the education system and forcing more income redistribution.
Saunders also argues, by the way, that social mobility is much better than we let on and evidence strongly suggests bright working class pupils, whatever the perceived obstacles, tend to be socially mobile.
MINISTERS TAKE ON OUR TOP UNIVERSITIES IN A NO WIN GAME
It does seem at times as if the Government is at war with our top universities . The Prime Minister took a swipe at Oxford this week, taking a leaf out of Gordon Browns book, which is a high risk gambit, particularly as he seems to have got his facts wrong over how many black pupils won places at Oxford last year.
The Prime Minister claimed it was “disgraceful” that only one black student was admitted to the university last academic year. But Oxford immediately hit back, accusing the Prime Minister who got a first-class degree at the university, of getting his facts wrong and being “highly misleading”. University officials said in a statement the correct figures for 2009/2010 were:
27 black British undergraduates; 14 mixed race undergraduates with black descent; 41 in total, including one black student of Caribbean descent
Responding to Mr Cameron’s criticism, the university said there were 99 black undergraduates in all years at Oxford in 2009/10. With postgraduate students included, this figure rose to 245, a spokeswoman added. The university went on to claim the real issue was actually attainment in schools, which is correct.
“Oxford is fully committed to admitting the most able students regardless of background,” she said. She continued “Official figures show that for 2009 just 452 black students across the entire country achieved the grades to make a competitive application to Oxford (three As excluding general studies).”Talking of Grades, and given that this Government is keen for the most disadvantaged pupils to access the best institutions – in 2008, only 160 students who were eligible for free school meals achieved 3 As nationally – that is out of around 30,000 students nationally who achieved AAA. All of those students gaining triple A were good, but some were outstanding, and it is the latter group that elite institutions seek to identify.
Growing numbers of Tory backbenchers are uneasy about the direction of travel . It would help of course if Downing Street got the facts right but it is compounded by the perception that HE policy is a bit of a dogs dinner. HE funding is in disarray and the Treasury is not clear how it will make up a large funding gap as a majority of universities opt for £9,000 tuition fees. Meanwhile ,Ministers are putting severe pressure on top universities to admit pupils from the state sector with inferior qualifications and to take into account their potential.
What looks increasingly likely is that the Government will have to cut back on student places at our best universities. Not good timing. In the meantime David Willetts has been accused by critics, including some Tory backbench MPs, of highly selective use of evidence to support his claims that state pupils with poorer grades than privately educated pupils often outperform them at University which is used by him to encourage top universities to open up access to pupils from poorer backgrounds with less impressive qualifications. For the record, the Russell Group of Universities , which includes most of the top universities, has since 1997 seen the proportion of state school students at its member universities grow by 9.0%. This rate of growth exceeds the growth in the proportion of state school students across all UK universities, which was 8.6% in the same period.
In addition the scrapping of the Aim Higher programme will, as an Oxford admissions tutor pointed out recently, damage the outreach initiatives that are designed to improve access. Some of these programmes are pretty sophisticated, such as the identification and monitoring of potential university applicants as early as years 8 and 9.
Richard Partington, chairman of Cambridge university’s admissions research working party, repeated his claim, last week, that there was “no evidence” that students from poor-performing schools admitted to Cambridge with worse A-level grades did as well as their peers. It came as research published by the university revealed raw sixth-form exam grades were “overwhelmingly” the best indicator of likely degree outcomes, irrespective of school type. Oxbridge are showing signs of effective counter-punching.It is hard to fathom how Ministers think that their tactics will deliver the outcomes they want. Better surely to get stakeholders on side particularly as Ministers have limited means of forcing universities to change their admissions policies.
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Recent
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- HOUSE – ON EARLY YEARS LEARNING AND THE CURRICULUM
- GOVES ATTACK ON PRIVATE SCHOOLS AND THEIR EFFECTS-A SOFT TARGET
- RICHARD HOUSE- ON EARLY YEARS EDUCATION AND THE CURRICULUM-DONT WE START FORMAL EDUCATION TOO EARLY?
- DO WE NEED A MIDDLE TIER TO HOLD SCHOOLS ACCOUNTABLE?
- MPs ON PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE- WORRIED ABOUT SCHOOLS FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY
- THE ACADEMIES COMMISSION-LAUNCH
- A QUEENS SPEECH – CLEARLY NOT DESIGNED TO RELAUNCH THE COALITION
- SOME CHARTER SCHOOLS SPEND MORE PER PUPIL THAN SIMILAR DISTRICT SCHOOLS
- ALL PARTY PARLIAMENTARY SOCIAL MOBILITY GROUP-SEVEN TRUTHS ABOUT, AND POLICY RESPONSES TO SUPPORT, SOCIAL MOBILITY
- WELLINGTON ALBERT HALL GALA-SHOWCASES AN INTERNATIONAL BRAND
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