Oxford's oldest student newspaper

Independent since 1920

University rejects state school bias

Oxford University looks likely to reject government plans which urge top universities to lower offers made to applicants from state schools with low university acceptance rates. While Bristol and Edinburgh have taken the plunge, a spokesman for the University stated that “there is no intention of systematically making lower offers.” Government plans published recently argue that universities should take each applicant’s case into context upon admission, considering criteria such as GSCE grades, school league positions and even SATs results. The focus of university admissions offices would be close research of school success. This bias towards state schools has been condemned by independent school authorities as discriminatory and unfair.Whilst the report states that positive discrimination would end the idea that a high-grade student from a high-achieving school would be considered worth ‘more’ than his state school counterpart, Director of Undergraduate Admissions Jane Minto told Cherwell that the University is “completely opposed to anything formulaic or mechanistic that inadvertently discriminates against any specific group of candidates.”ARCHIVE: 0th Week MT2003 

Check out our other content

Most Popular Articles