A Class Act

‘WHEN viewing the numbers of students from working class backgrounds at universities, it’s all a matter of what angle you approach things from.

”Now all I need is to find £20,000 lying around”

The Telegraph observes that the bastions of higher learning have bowed to Government pressure and admitted a larger proportion of students from state schools and colleges last year.

The Times sees the same league tables of who studies where and notes that, although the state and independent school divide is narrowing, the top universities must do better.

And then there is the Guardian, which notes that the rise in the numbers of students from the poorest social backgrounds at universities is ”tiny”.

That is very small indeed. And overall readers learn that only a quarter of last year’s entrants on first degree courses came from what it calls the lowest three social-economic classes.

And where do they go?

Well, at the risk of doing down the achievements of so many, we find it hard to see the positive points of a degree from such places as the University of Wolverhampton, the University of Luton and Bolton Institute of Higher Education.

The remedy, it seems, is to enable and encourage poorer students to apply to gain entry to more blue chip and red brick colleges and less prefabricated institutions.

Or they could always leave school and get a job…’

Posted: 11th, December 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink