Abbie’s Blog: Palmer’s and the 6%: The debate continues………..

Blogger Abbie Maguire gets to the heart of the matter

“A shrill scream echoes through the hallway, a white sheet of paper tattooed with an answer is held firmly in their hand. Around Thurrock, hundreds of other screams are uttered, hundreds of other sheets of paper are posted through letterboxes – the object of every hopeful college student’s desire: “Dear … We are delighted/regret to inform you that your application to the University of … has been successful/unsuccessful.”

There is no question about what will be going on behind the tiny porches of Thurrock over the next few months; the question that I am most curious about is what university will our brightest be enrolling to, if in fact they will be enrolling at any at all?

YourThurrock has challenged local colleges and schools recently with shocking statistics, all of which have been subject to an onslaught of defence. But the real question we at YourThurrock are asking is one of sheer simplicity: are you happy with the six percent, yes or no? No long-winded, embellished response, just the raw statistic as it sits on the paper.

Over recent weeks, there has been lively debate as to what defines a good university, with many blaming local politicians for revealing the quandary and some blaming local colleges and students for massaging these figures. The Completely University Guide factors in the following key components essential for Higher Education: entry standard, student satisfaction, research assessment and graduate prospects. The elitist Cambridge holds its academic reign and London South Bank falls to the bottom, with the Russell Group universities lingering around the upper regions of the league table. So to silence any retort, the “good” universities in the UK are diligently determined through meticulous methodology, which is improved upon year on year.

The catalyst for this dispute is indeed whether “good” universities reflect the educational standards for the borough, so let’s do a little compare and contrast: the entry standard to study English at the University of Cambridge is A*AA. The entry standard to study English at the London South Bank University is CCC. Therefore, someone who gets into the University of Cambridge, gaining top marks in all three A Level exams, in theory, should be more widely celebrated than someone who enrols into the lowest ranked university in the country, otherwise there becomes an iniquitous belief that an A* is as good as a C. The defence is the generic “they don’t do the courses I wish to study” – Russell Group universities offer variety and combinations envied by other, less prestigious universities due to the endowments given to these institutions for research and facility improvements.

For many headteachers, they have been forced to face the reality of falling university applicants and has become somewhat of an elephant in the room. Is it really lack of motivation on the students’ part or are our educational standards slipping on an already slippery slope, for most of which I blame Labour. At the end of a degree, every graduate yearns to be employed, particularly at a company proportional to their studies, and the “good” universities have the highest graduate prospects, which is why we should be pushing our students to the maximum, towards the best universities in the country, to one day see those very students powering our economy, government, education system, scientific breakthroughs, award winning literature and aspiring leadership. Why should we settle for an average university when we can push students to go onto the best ones? Every student has the potential and every student has the environment to exercise that potential, so why? Why isn’t that six percent of students attending “good” universities in Thurrock, sixty? I asked forty first and second year students at Palmer’s Sixth Form College what two universities they planned on attending. In bold are Russell Group universities, of which there are twenty.

Note that some knew one university they wished to attend but not the other, so therefore chose one from the following list, and then uncertainty.

East Anglia 2
Greenwich 4
Oxford 2
Goldsmiths 1
Queen Mary 3
Southampton 4
Brighton 6
Essex 6
No University 11
Open University 1
Cambridge 2
Unsure 6
Birmingham 2
Edinburgh 1
Bournemouth 3
Leicester 1
Anglia Ruskin 2
Kent 3
City London 2
Bangor 1
King’s College, London 2
Bath 2
London School of Economics and Political Science 1
Royal Holloway 1
Canterbury 1

As presented in the data, only fourteen out of forty are placing their hopes on a Russell Group university, which converts to only thirty five percent. With over a thousand students at Palmer’s, the data is only a small population of the college; therefore the percent will undoubtedly go down as the quantity of students increase. Only four set their sights on the coveted Oxbridge – a meagre ten percent of all asked.

At twenty, the highest was no university with second as local university Essex, uncertainty and Brighton, and joint third being Greenwich and Southampton. Emma Gardiner, English Lecturer at Palmer’s, offered her wisdom as to why these universities were most popular: “…Over the past few years I’ve found that a lot of students here apply for universities based on location. University of Essex, East Anglia or the London universities are often first choices for students simply because they would prefer to live at home and commute. For those students who prefer to stay at university, the two universities in Canterbury are always very popular as students can stay there, but they can still get home in an hour or so if they want to.”

This paints us a shocking picture: do our students really value convenience over educational experiences? Has a complacency culture grown among us?

After speaking to some students, I’ve come to know the five considerations that ultimately decide the university of choice: location; tuition fees; courses available; prestige of university and its relevance to their career prospects, particularly those who choose no university. My choices are Oxford University and King’s College, ranked number two and sixteen respectively out of the one hundred and sixteen universities in the UK. To study English, my choices rank in two and twenty two respectively, both highly regarded universities in academic circles. My decision behind Oxford covers courses available, prestige of university and its relevance to my career prospects, as does King’s College. Sheer ambition has neglected the tuition fees and location: where there’s a will, there is a way. Though challenging, it prepares us for the real world, where you cannot rely on what is merely expected of you, but where you can rely on the prevailing of diligence, persistence and excellence.

My quest for answers has led me to solid conclusion. There is of course only one real way to find out: come back and read my blog in five years time and I promise to tell you all about it…