In a bid to follow Office for Students guidelines, Oxford and Cambridge plans to diversify using innovative schemes to allow disadvantaged students to study in their exclusive hallowed portals.
Cambridge and Oxford plan to reach out to more disadvantaged students which include the innovative 100 extra places and the new foundation year for disadvantaged students, respectively. The residential scheme is a long term expansion plan of the schools. Presently, Cambridge only has Sutton Trust as the official summer school partner with an annual capability of 540 students.
The expansion plans of Oxford and Cambridge take into account students who are in care and can pass for free school meals. Evaluating the expansion plans, the author of “How English Public School Ruin Britain”, Robert Verkaik reiterated how the plans would significantly prepare children for the cultural change associated with studying in one of the prestigious schools in Britain.
Creating rooms for disadvantaged children to attend good schools like Oxford, and Cambridge will allow them to take on elite professions. When these institutions are responsible for educating these students to be senior judges, cabinet, and diplomats, the schools would have achieved the feat of educating students to be representatives of the masses.
Oxford and Cambridge are needed leverage
These universities can actualize this desire in the future by providing opportunities for disadvantaged students to attend a top university in Britain. By giving out their infrastructures for reduced course fees, they will give disadvantaged students the needed leverage.
Each of the top universities in Britain already makes about 10,000 Pounds each time they offer private summer schools to the elites. According to Sutton Trust, studying with one of these top Britain universities increases the chances of receiving an offer from the prestigious schools.
Within 10 years, from 2006 to 2016, students who had the opportunity to attend UK summer school access schemes experienced similar opportunities with the top universities in Britain.
Office for Students directs elite UK universities, including Cambridge and Oxford
Earlier this week, the Office for Student (OfS) directed universities in England to lower their fees as part of diversification. Since universities must have their plans approved to charge the maximum fees, institutions would be forced by OfS to lower their fees if they do not do enough to make their intakes more diverse.
As they were precisely constituted for equal access to educational institutions, the OfS is authorized by the Department of Education to administer university admissions test and ensure students from all backgrounds are enabled to secure entrance even in the best of universities – regardless of race, culture or community.
Some universities took drastic steps to address the issue and several of the Russell Group have offered places to students with lower grades than usual if they meet deprivation criteria. Oxford University has ring-fenced twenty-five (25) percent of its places for disadvantaged teenagers.
The University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, known as Oxbridge, are the two oldest universities in England. Founded more than 800 years ago, they have produced a large number of Britain’s most prominent scientists, writers, and politicians, as well as noted figures in many other fields. Hopefully, diversification of Cambridge and Oxford will achieve the feat of educating students to be representatives of the masses.
