Peter Wilby in the Guardian re. Oxbridge - daft or not?

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Article here:

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/sep/17/access-to-oxbridge-state-school-pupils]]

He suggests schools should have to identify 1-3 'brightest' pupils at 15 and give them extra help to get to Oxbridge. I think this is idiotic because

• Won't resources to do this take away from everyone else?
• Will the 1-3 brightest at 15 really be the ones who want/are best able to go at 18?
• Shouldn't we be encouraging lots of children to consider applying to lots of great universities (including Oxbridge), and telling them that even if they don't get in, there's no harm aiming high in one of their choices? Surely identifying such a small number only reinforces the idea it's for an elite?

I am sure it isn't a serious proposal, but I was quite annoyed to see it get any column inches and wondered if there could be anyone out there who sees a positive side to this?!

Yes, and I think even if you didn't get 19 (or even all 3) accepted, inevitably you'd end up struggling to choose the three and others would be disappointed. And they would feel even more left out than if the scheme never existed.

We were all discouraged and told we would not get in and it was only for very academic and confident people, not like us - and this was a private school so they're not necessarily better). A mate of mine listened and didn't apply, then ended up wishing she'd been told to try as she felt she'd missed a chance. She went there later on so she was good enough.

jinsei - but what do they do about plane fares? I think I would be really scared of the idea of having to have that sort of money up front, too, so I would be put off if it were done as money back once you're there. Maybe that is an issue?

I agree that Stanford or Harvard would be a huge huge step for even the cleverest and most motivated 17 year old, if they didn't have the funds to fly back home two or three times a year. Very different from being a Megabus away.

It makes me snort when I read posts advocating US universities as a "cheaper" option.

As others say, for a start there are the plane fares. And unless your dc is going alone, that would be at least two air fares (one of them return). The financial assistance would not allow a person to live like a lord - they would be having quite a spartan existence which might be all right if you could slink home every so often for a slap-up meal and a month's worth of washing done, but if there's no back-up around, it must be hard-going. Our next-door-neighbour's dd is at Harvard. In spite of some assistance, it is costing her parents both arms and both legs.

If you're going to do it, it shouldn't just be to two or three, because then right at the outset you're setting it up as something rare and inaccessible. Talk to the whole of top set, even if it's probably most won't go down that route - or else leave everyone to get on with it, but don't just pick out a tiny minority, I think.

Think dds' school takes groups of anyone who wants to go on advice-oriented trips to one or other or both in the sixth form, that seems reasonable to me.

Completely agree tosn.

You should open it up to lots of students. As many as are interested.

Nothing to lose by imparting information. Knowledge is power and all that.

Exactly, and no harm shooting for the moon, either. Hiving off 3 bright pupils in year 10 does more to enforce the idea to the rest that Oxford and Cambridge are Not For You than it probably does for the 3 you select.

As I was the one to diverted the thread (accidentally) onto American Universities, please let me clarify. I have loads and loads of family in the US. If one of my children went to a Uni there, there is a ready built support network.

My BIG problem with that article is that it did not say
"why does the bog standard comp not get more kids into Imperial"
what is the Journo obsession with the dreaming Spires?

Scientists and engineers are who will save us from the hot air generated by politicians .....