The Economist quotes our Chairman, Sir Peter Lampl in an article on Oxford admissions.

WHILE at school, the idea of going to Oxford University “might as well have been like going to Mars,” says Varaidzo Kativhu, an 18-year-old from Brierley Hill, a town in the West Midlands. Yet now she is on a foundation year at Lady Margaret Hall, one of the university’s 38 colleges. The scheme, introduced this year, offers smart pupils from tough backgrounds who don’t have the requisite grades a free, year-long course before they go through the regular application process for entry the following year. After the political revolts of 2016, “I think all institutions have to ask what we’re doing to include black, Muslim and white working-class people,” says Alan Rusbridger, a former editor of the Guardian who became principal of Lady Margaret Hall last year.

Access is a problem in nearly all good universities, but Oxford, which is the world’s best according to a recent ranking by Times Higher Education magazine, and the alma mater of seven of the past ten British prime ministers, gets criticised for it more often than most. Defenders of the university say the problem lies beyond its ramparts: schools do not send it enough poor, bright candidates. Its critics argue that the admissions process is prejudiced against such children. As a new round of interviews gets under way this month, fresh initiatives are aiming to bring some diversity to its quads.

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Many poor, bright pupils choose not to apply. Doing so is needlessly tricky, particularly for those whose school sends few people to university, says Sir Peter Lampl of the Sutton Trust, an education charity. Whereas most universities accept applications until January, Oxford (like Cambridge and most medical schools) demands them by October. It sets extra tests, which schools must invigilate. Its interviews are a stomach-lurching prospect.

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Read the full article here.