Oxbridge 'favours' students from London and South-East

[jeanne16]

Apparently 48% of students come from London and the South-East with Richmond being a particular hotspot. Should we be surprised by this and accuse the universities of bias? The way I see it is Richmond is full of extremely intelligent people who presumably have intelligent children. They then have the money and resources to support them in all sorts of ways, such as buying books, reading to them, private schooling and/or tutors when needed, sport and other activities.

I really don't see how this is the fault of the universities.

Overall, over 50% of undergraduate students are female.

This does not mean that there are not significant pockets of subjects where women are very much in the minority, and made to feel unwelcome. In these subjects, the pp has a point - that women going to top universities to study these subjects is an act of rebellion, one that will over time improve the gender balance and treatment of women in these subjects.

Again, as I have said upthread, I find it remarkable that people care so much about socio-economic imbalance in university admissions but they don't care at all about (glaring) gender issues in some subjects.

WishfulThanking these stories about girls being treated as bimbos and black kids being ignored simply don't sound credible, from what I know of contemporary Oxford.

Also, your comment about unconscious bias is quite ironic in the context of your whole post.

Not really, goodbye
Maybe it is you that should open your mind, considering you are not black yourself.

weird, patronising comment to make.

WishfulThanking your immediate go to assumption of white privilege was significantly weirder than any comment I've made about finding contemporary Oxford students, not merely my own, very open minded indeed.

Ok

I'm not clear why you're confused WishfulThanking. My post was very clear: no way would the students I know at Oxford who've done recent Open Days act like the students in these anecdotes. Unconscious bias has nothing to do with it. All students are conscious of the under represented groups and will go out of their way to engage them. That's what they come back from vacation for in September - it's not like they're there anyway.

Also, I think it entirely fair when someone makes a baseless assumption about white privilege, hot on the heels of another of their comments unconscious bias, to pick them up on it :)

itooamoxford.tumblr.com/

FunderAnna

I read your link, 'I, too, am Oxford' with interest - some thought provoking sentiments on the photo boards.

However, the blog is completely devalued by the childish and contrived story written by the student from Hawaii Pacific University.

Where are the racial undertones in the university professor's comment, 'I'm not a pharmacy' ? How on earth does this black student make the leap from the professor's comment to, ' I felt like she saw me as a drug addict because I am a black female skateboarder.'

If one of my (white) dc approached their university professor, whilst they were standing at a podium in front of a roomful of other students and asked for some bandages for a bloodied knee, and then proceeded to roll up their 'MissMe jeans' with tales of a skateboarding accident - and received an incredulous look, with the comment, 'I'm not a pharmacy', I would think, 'Serves you bloody right, you're 18, not 8 - go to the first aid room next time and stop bothering your professor.'

The black student hasn't even noticed her own pre-conceptions or prejudices: she describes the other students collectively as 'Asians' and 'whites' and she views her female university professor as a 'mumsy' figure, 'I knew she had two small children at home so I figured as a mother she would always be prepared for anything, ya know' instead of a professional at her place of work - would she ask a male professor for bandages? And her comment, 'so I returned to my chair and thought to myself, did she think I just asked her to fill a prescription? I have no idea,' just shows her ignorance - pharmacies sell bandages as well young lady - your professor was being sarcastic because you were being childish, not because you are black.

Is that really the worst example of 'micro-aggression' this young student can think of to share as her 'black experience'? As I said, this story devalues the rest of the blog.

There are a couple of vloggers from Cambridge who discuss their experiences of getting into and being at the university as BME students. I haven't watched all of them, but I don't get the impression they come from wealthy backgrounds.

This is an article about them from the guardian.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/global/shortcuts/2017/oct/01/vloggers-cambridge-university-youtube

From there it's easy to get to their channels. I think Cambridge have recognised that their channels will do as much to encourage students from diverse backgrounds to apply as any outreach programme.

Also see Oxvlog on youtube.

"WishfulThinking these stories about girls being treated as bimbos and black kids being ignored simply don't sound credible, from what I know of contemporary Oxford."

Vicariously from DS I would agree with this.