NOT a single student from Thurrock has gone up to Oxford or Cambridge in the last three years, according to a report by the Sutton Trust.
The report accuses Oxford and Cambridge of being so socially exclusive that they recruit more students from eight top schools than almost 3,000 other English state schools put together.
The Sutton Trust social mobility charity says the leading universities are failing to attract a wide enough range of talent.
Trust founder Sir Peter Lampl said all young people needed a “fair chance”.
The study examined Oxford and Cambridge admissions data between 2015 and 2017 and found a handful of schools, mostly private, disproportionately dominating the number of places awarded.
The study shows that Thurrock, Rochdale and Southampton were three areas where not a single student was accepted into Oxford or Cambridge. This compares to Kingston-on-Thames where 150 students were offered places.
The study blames a lack of advice and guidance for applicants and calls for better information about what is required for entry and for admissions to take into account young people’s backgrounds.
“If we are to ensure that all young people, regardless of their background, have a fair chance of getting in to our top universities, we need to address the patchwork of higher education guidance and support,” said Sir Peter Lampl.
“All young people, regardless of what area they grow up in, or what school they go to, should have access to high quality personal guidance that allows them to make the best informed choices about their future.”
Martin Williams, Oxford University’s pro-vice-chancellor for education, said the university accepted the need to do more to widen access.
“We are very much aware that Oxford must work harder to attract a more representative selection of students from across the UK,” said Prof Williams.
The university says it spends £7m per year on outreach schemes and is promising a new “detailed action plan” with changes to make sure there are places for students of “outstanding potential from all backgrounds”.
A spokesman for the University of Cambridge welcomed the idea that “more support should be made available to students before they choose their A-level subjects and agree there should be more provision of careers advice”.
But Cambridge rejected “lowering grade requirements”, saying this would “place unfair pressure on students and that is something the university cannot support”.
Removing barriers
The Education Secretary Damian Hinds, speaking on Thursday, said that leading universities should accept students with the new technical qualifications, known as T-levels.
He said it would be an “error” to have a “blanket rejection” of young people applying with the new vocational exams, where they were relevant.
Oxford University says it is waiting to see how the T-levels develop before making a decision.
Mr Hinds was launching plans for an overhaul of vocational education – saying such exams needed to be of sufficiently high quality to be held in the same esteem as A-levels and academic qualifications.
“It needs a system which is very high quality, is well invested in, is well accepted – and not everybody passes,” he said.
He warned of a “plethora of mediocre” qualifications that not well understood by either the public or employers but said, he wanted to remove “false barriers” between academic and vocational qualifications and that both could be routes into higher education.
On the Sutton Trust report, Mr Hinds said: “Whilst potential and talent is evenly spread, the opportunities to make the most of it sometimes aren’t.
“Recent data shows progress has been made for disadvantaged students going to university, there is still a long way to go.
“I want universities to work with us, consider the data carefully and look at their own admissions policies to work out what can be done to ensure that their university is open to everyone who has the potential, no matter their background or where they are from.”
Why don’t that surprise me.
Standards in education in Thurrock have been falling year on year. Many parents see schooling as no more than a baby sitting service.
Teachers are abused on a daily basis by disruptive pupils and you can’t even say the truth in a report home…other than “could do better”.
Education in Thurrock is a joke, the system fails everybody.LEA failings are rife.
Of course no-one from Thurrock has gone to Oxford or Cambridge for the last three years because schools and colleges can’t afford the basic equipment and supplies due to the Tory cuts to education funding that have left some schools begging their pupil’s parents for money for essentials. Add to that the fact that a lot of teachers are pushed through training so fast that they haven’t got the skills to do the job. Add to that the fact that the need to have inclusive education means that basic skills (such as correct spelling, punctuation, etc) aren’t as heavily enforced when exam papers are being marked means that some teachers are unable to teach those basic skills because they never picked them up in the first place. And, finally, add to that the fact that tuition fees have become so costly that a university education is beyond the reach of a lot of youngsters from Thurrock, thanks to the Tories.
Good! that means fewer young people are being conned into getting into debt in the university system which by and large goes into the pockets of already wealthy university’s that are in effect private corporations. The need to go to university is a falsehood born out of the governments wish to keep unemployment figures down and the need to these education businesses to keep their coffers full.
University education is needed for academics in real fields of science and medicine, not some one who wants to work in the media or god forbid become a teacher, or those who never wish to work in the real world and who want to be 50 and appearing on university challenge doing their umpteenth degree.
Here Cookie goes again folks. Blame the Tories instead of balanced argument.
my son had a interview at Cambridge and they openly sneered at our postcode saying they had never seen one like that before.
I Just read StanfordIsGreat post. and I am now scared.
This economic Neoliberalism thing started under Thatcher has done nothing but concentrated
markets into fewer and fewer hands. It is the antipathy of capitalism . If people don’t wake up neoliberalism when it crashes as it has every single decade its been around. It will not only take neoliberalism with it but my
system capitalism and we will end up with socialism or even worse than that.
Now for the education part.
Around 7% of school places are independent schools but they make up 50% of the top of society. (Judges so on)
If you are a working class kid you are up against it it will only get worse as inequality increases. As mom and dad wont be able to pay to play.
But then thats the West by design. Its serfdom.
“cuts to education funding that have left some schools begging their pupil’s parents for money for essentials.”
Valen I know a New York Teacher and she has had to buy her class kids the School items out of her own wages, due to the
Republican party cuts.
It is a growing trend over there and i hope it does not happen over here.
StanfordIsGreat – I agree with you. Good comment.
rocket1 – What do you expect in a country run by social elites?
Catching the Bus – It already has, old chap.
its wrong that they are allowed to pretend to be a charity and get massive tax breaks and at the same time they discriminate against state schooled pupils.