Oxbridge and the great escape

Poor old Nick Clegg, he just can't win, can he? On Wednesday's BBC 10 O' Clock News, a student said he was "either mad, stupid or malicious" for raising student fees. Then, after retreating from that meeting, looking very angry and rather ruffled, he was confronted with a Commons motion, signed by 25 Tory MPs, criticising his attempt to encourage 'fair access' to England's most prestigious universities.

Not that long ago Clegg had the appearance of an enthusiastic fresher with a disarmingly straightforward manner. We now realise that most of it was achieved through sleight of hand and being taught the magical trick of looking straight into the camera when answering questions during election TV debates. Now, he and his team are looking increasingly beleaguered as they tie themselves up in knots trying to keep their own party happy while at the same time remaining in government.

For his next trick, Clegg will find himself tripling student fees and at the same time berating top universities for not accepting enough students from poor backgrounds. At the moment, children from private schools, about 7% of total students, take up half of the places at Oxford and Cambridge. Private school pupils are 55 times more likely to get a place. According to the Sutton Trust, out of the one in five children currently eligible to 'free school meals' in England, only 2% of make it into England's top 25 universities. It's been quite an achievement for successive governments to make 98% disappear.

Fees are due to rise to £9000 from 2012, but Clegg wants to ensure that poorer pupils will not be put off applying because of the increase. Out of his hat he has pulled the proposal that any university wishing to charge more than £6000 will have to agree a target with the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) each year. The highest fee charging universities will have to agree how many students from state schools or poorer backgrounds they recruit in future years. Speaking to the BBC, Clegg argued,

"These statistics demonstrate just how closed many of our universities are to students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Universities should be the greatest agent of social mobility that we have in this country, but too often instead they are serving as instruments of social segregation."

Meanwhile, the threat that their children might not be able to get a place at their old college has provoked Tory MPs and the Tory press. Yesterday they were accusing Clegg of pushing this issue as a way to make the tuition fee hike more palatable to his fellow Lib Dem MPs. Probably true. They also argued that it was social engineering and said universities should not be be forced to compromise educational standards in order to fill quotas. I would also agree that there is social engineering going on, just not in favour of state school students.

The Russell Group, representing the UK's top universities responded to the proposals by saying,

“It is important to be very clear about the underlying cause of under-representation of students from low-income families at university. As the report acknowledges, the primary reason why too few students from lower socio-economic backgrounds go to university is under-achievement at school.  Ensuring that students from low-income backgrounds fulfil their potential at school is by far and away the most effective way of increasing their chances of going to a leading university."

As an undergraduate I shared a house with a young Muslim man from Burnley. He had managed to scrape into university after completing 'A' levels during the evening while working full-time at a clothing store. Having left school with a handful of GCSEs, his manager spotted some talent and encouraged him to sit more exams. The university, too, felt he was a worthy candidate and he was given a  low offer. He worked hard, but not obsessively, was the life and soul of the department and got a 'first'. He is now a very successful man.

His story is exceptional. He was exceptionally lucky to have a boss who encouraged him to go back to school. He was exceptionally lucky the university were prepared to take a risk and gave him a low offer. Once he got the chance there was nothing lucky about his success. He was an exceptional candidate. Yet luck had to play such a huge part in the process. Compare his experience to the luck of being part of a family that puts you down for Eton the moment you are born.

I often think of my university friend when I hear organisations like the Russell Group talk about 'under achievement' at school. From what he told me, getting to school every morning had been an achievement. He came from a poor background, in a deprived neighbourhood and with English as a second language. He is an extreme example but like many state school pupils he was playing catch-up from day one. If the Russell Group were really interested in 'attracting students with the most potential from all backgrounds' they would have to adopt a more flexible approach to assessing that potential. 

One way of addressing potential is through 'value added' monitoring. The idea of 'value added' is much maligned by everyone in education except those at the sharp end who realise that a child's ability to learn can not be judged purely from their final results. It aims to measure a child's educational development with reference to where they were developmentally when they started at school. It is not a level playing field. On a very basic level, it's a lot easier to discover and read 'the book' when it's on the shelf at home. There is a big difference between being better educated and being more intelligent. At the moment many state school pupils are playing against a stacked deck. 

Obviously, development can be enhanced by a number of variables. The three Bs from a child whose parents left school with no qualifications, who does not get taken to cultural events and sat in a class of 34 might demonstrate enormous potential compared to a child who has had all the advantages and gets three As. I'm not trying to denigrate the success of three As but I do want the achievement of three Bs to be properly recognised. Who has the greater 'potential'? 

Last year in The Observer, Will Hutton argued that privilege not talent continued to define opportunity in this country. It was a damning indictment of our 21st Century democracy,

"For while most people would like to believe we "have got past" worrying about the role of Eton and private education because it is no longer said to matter, the social truth will out. Britain is a chronically unfair and increasingly closed society and private education plays a central role."

What better demonstrates Hutton's conclusion than the current cabinet? Eton - Oxford - Prime Minister. Cameron is the nineteenth Prime Minister educated at Eton. Only in a cabinet dominated by Old Etonians could Nick Clegg, a product of lowly Westminster School - £29,000 per year - think he is qualified to be the voice of the 'common man'? With these sorts of contradictions, no wonder his political career is looking increasingly like one of Houdini's more daring tricks. 

In my experience, if you ask state school students what studying at Oxford or Cambridge was like, they will tell you that the culture was dominated by an atmosphere of public school 'entitlement'. They belonged and the state school kids didn't. Clegg's solution, is quotas and targets. In these circumstances, to 'give' state school and poor students places at top universities, is dripping with that 'entitlement'. How very Victorian and paternalistic. State school students don't need to be 'given' a place. Many of them have already earned one. 

Luckily, just in case my kids don't get the grades, I've already put my kids down for an X Factor audition.