State educaten makes pupils more likely to be successful at university

[Agggghast]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-26773830

Found this interesting - is it because they are more used to learning independently?

It has provided a nice headline for a certain type of person to latch to .... could be worse.

A lawyer asked to link to me on Linked in today which happens every week or so. I looked up where he'd been to university on his profile - looks like 3 ex polys for his first degree and various diplomas. I concluded he probably wasn't very bright. Still happy to connect to him. I might be utterly wrong but it tends on the whole to be right - low A level grades followed by badly regarded institution = more likely than not not to be quite as bright as otherwise would be so. It is unfair that we make assessments based on this and indeed on people's writing skills or their exam grades perhaps but as so many people do it is simply important children know what they need to go and where they need to attend to get what they are after so they make informed choices.

Indeed, rabbitstew and wordfactory. It definitely demonstrates the ability of the press to completely misrepresent the data, such as it is, for the purposes of an attention-grabbing headline.

Just read (most of) the full report because I wasn't sure that the "headline" told the full story........ The full report says that the research had taken account of degree subject, and had found that HE Institution didn't impact the results (without really explaining either point, up to the point I reached, about 2/3rds through), but my initial reaction was "How can we be sure this research isn't comparing Law at Oxford with Food technology at somewhere else?"

The bigger concern for me would be why do we still have a narrow focus (3 subject) university entrance exam and a (predominantly) single subject Higher Education model. If HE looks like that when my children are ready, I'll do everything I can to dissuade them from going. My children are under 5, but when they become adults, their competition for employment didn't go to school in UK. I speak as an employer and a parent when I say that my interest is in having breadth of knowledge including commercial awareness, not a narrow specialism in one area. Graduates today are likely to get fired a couple of times in life, and therefore need lots of strings to their bow.........why be at the mercy of a specialised system? Everything about A-levels freaks me out.