A leading Cambridge don has attacked the “toff image” of Oxbridge promoted by politicians and the media.
Professor Robert Lethbridge, Master of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, has warned that bright state school pupils might be put off from applying to Oxford and Cambridge due to outdated and harmful caricatures.
Lethbridge emphasised the importance that the two universities place upon access and equal opportunities. He commented, “I think we need to constantly stress that, at the very top of our education system, we are utterly meritocratic. We need to counter the self-deprecatory dimension of Englishness and we need to no longer retail the Brideshead Revisited, toff image of Oxford and Cambridge which some misinformed people find as a lazy target.”
Hannah Cusworth, the Vice-President at OUSU for Access and Academic Affairs, commented, “Oxford’s access work does much to combat this ‘toff’ image and the amount and quality of this work is improving every year. The best way Oxford can show the university is not full of toffs is to let students from a diverse range of backgrounds lead its access work.
“If Oxford wants to dispel this idea that all students here are toffs it needs to change the perception of Oxford undergraduates and convince the media to stop running silly stories that perpetuate this image. Another way, of course, is to make sure our access work is successful so that more bright students from ordinary backgrounds win a place at Oxford”.
An Oxford University spokesperson echoed Lethbridge’s sentiment and was similarly optimistic about Oxford’s access work. They commented, “Media coverage of Oxford does tend to be somewhat weighted towards the negative and stereotyped. However, the University is working hard to communicate the messages that Oxford’s recruitment and selection procedures are about merit, not background, and that state school students are in the majority at Oxford.
“As part of this, the University spends millions of pounds each year on outreach and access work, holding over 1500 events for potential students annually.” The Independent Taskforce on Student Finance has recently shown that Oxford offers the most generous financial help for the lowest-income students out of any university in the country, which amounts to over £22,000 over three years.
Leah Lazar, a fresher at New College, commented, “The social inequality found at Oxbridge is not down to its admissions process but is symptomatic of the British school system as a whole. Politicians need to stop Oxbridge bashing and start addressing the inadequacies in British schools.”
