Date published: 2005/08/16
The BBC says:
Many comprehensive school teachers think students are put off applying to Oxford and Cambridge by their social image, a survey says.
Of 101 teachers interviewed, 54% said students were often discouraged by the universities' "social context", while 45% said this happened occasionally.
Grammar school and college students were less wary, the National Foundation for Educational Research found.
It recommended more "proactive targeting" of comprehensives.
A total of 236 teachers completed the NFER's questionnaires: 101 from comprehensives, 80 from grammars and 55 from post-16 colleges.
Worries about the "social context" of Oxbridge often discouraged pupils, according to 23% of grammar school staff, and occasionally according to 70%.
For college teachers the figures were 46% and 48%.
Some 906 students at comprehensives, grammar schools and colleges were also interviewed.
NFER found 35% were put off applying to Oxbridge by its social mix, down from 47% in a corresponding study in 1998.
...
The NFER study - Factors Affecting Applications to Oxford and Cambridge - was commissioned by the universities.
Is this serious? Hardly anyone completed the questionnaires (are we supposed to be impressed that 236 teachers did), and with this kind of questionnaire it is much more likely that people with a strong negative opinion are going to respond. And the wording of all surveys distorts the outcome (if 1 student in 100 is discouraged then that counts as "occasionally" but it's hardly a problem). The worst aspect is that the universities actually paid for this ridiculous study to be done, what a complete and utter waste of money. No doubt it was done for politically correct reasons, an unfortunate reaction to continual government demands for social engineering to be the prime criterion for admission to Oxbridge. It would have been far better to spend the money on something the universities should be doing (e.g. student bursaries, scientific research, etc.).
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