Oxbridge and Cambridge admissions to be investigated

OFT inquiry could cause university admission chaos

Oxford asks most applicants to sit aptitude tests related to their chosen degree subject

Times photographer, David Bebber

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  Oxford asks most applicants to sit aptitude tests related to their chosen degree subject Times photographer, David Bebber

Greg Hurst Education Editor

Published at 12:01AM, November 14 2013

Oxford and Cambridge universities fear that admissions arrangements will “grind to a halt” if the competition watchdog orders changes.
The universities believe that they could be forced to abandon their interviews of applicants and detailed scrutiny of candidates’ exam marks and backgrounds. It follows a preliminary inquiry into university admissions announced last month by the Office of Fair Trading.
The Times has been told that civil servants have been informed by officials that the OFT wants to examine a rule that candidates cannot apply to Oxford and Cambridge to see whether it is anti-competitive. They also want to look at the system of applying for degree courses via the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas), which restricts applicants to five choices.
The rule that candidates can apply to Oxford or Cambridge but not both, known as the “rule of combination”, was introduced by Ucas in the late 1980s to limit the volume of applications to manageable levels.
A senior administrator at Cambridge said it would be unable to cope if the number of applications doubled and said the same principle applied to medical schools. Candidates applying to study medicine, dentistry or veterinary science are restricted to four choices of medical or dental schools and, as with Oxbridge applications, must apply earlier.
Jon Beard, director of undergraduate recruitment at Cambridge, told a conference yesterday: “We receive 15,000 applications a year, Oxford receives 17,500. In term of interviewing that number of students the process would grind to a halt.
“If our rate of application doubled, it would be very hard to look at the range of data that we currently apply to each application.”
The University of Oxford would not comment but is understood to be preparing a detailed submission to the OFT raising identical concerns.
Cambridge invites around 80 per cent of applicants for one-to-one interviews with academics, whose off-the-wall questions are the stuff of student legend. It also looks at raw marks achieved by candidates in AS levels, the academic performance of their school and a range of other data.
Oxford goes further by asking most applicants to sit aptitude tests related to their chosen degree subject.
Some experts in competition law have suggested that the agreement with Oxford and Cambridge may amount to uncompetitive practice and that university admissions may come under competition law as higher fees could be seen as the sale of services.
However, arrangements deemed to have anti-competitive elements may be justified if they are shown to benefit consumers.
Mr Beard told the conference: “There are similar rules in place for medicine for very, very similar reasons and all students are restricted to five choices. So this rule of combination, although the focus is always on Oxford and Cambridge, actually there are a number of other restrictions in place on students applying to higher education, so if that rule is one that is deemed to be unsuitable it raises issues in relation to the whole process.”
The OFT has invited submissions of evidence by the end of the year and, once it has analysed these, will decide whether to launch a formal investigation

Oxford disputes claim that Harvard is cheaper

 

 

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  The poorest Oxford students would pay £3,500 towards their fees and living costs Image Source

Greg Hurst Education Editor

Last updated at 12:01AM, November 13 2013

Oxford university has clashed with a leading education charity over research claiming that its degrees are much more expensive for poor students than studying at Harvard.
It accused the Sutton Trust of using data based on small samples out of context and said it risked confusing parents and students.
The dispute broke out after the trust published a study comparing the costs of studying at elite universities in Britain with similar colleges in the United States.
The Sutton Trust has criticised the higher fees levied by English universities and last year began running summer schools at Ivy League universities for poor bright British teenagers to encourage them to consider studying in the US instead.
Ahead of a two day summit on access to leading universities, which starts in London today, it published research analysing the costs to poor students of studying at elite universities in Britain, the US and Australia.
While Harvard has much higher tuition fees, of £24,200 a year plus living costs of £13,133, the actual costs were much lower for students from poor and middle-income families due to generous means tested grants, the report said.
This mean that the very poorest students would pay only £865 a year, students from lower income families would pay just £2,019 a year. Even students whose parents were higher tax rate payers, earning up to £41,000, would pay only £3,155 while those whose family income was up to £65,000 would pay £8,243, it said.
In contrast, the study said the poorest Oxford students would pay £3,500 towards their fees and living costs, undergraduates from lower income families would pay £11,300 and those from wealthier families £16,000 a year, it said.
The research, led by a respected academic Dr John Jerrim of the Institute of Education at the University of London, prompted an unusually robust counter-attack from Oxford.
“Unfortunately in this material the Sutton Trust is in danger of confusing students and parents by reaching some large conclusions on small samples without the relevant context,” a statement by the University of Oxford said.
The lower costs cited for Harvard were from a work-study programme, it said.
“It fails to acknowledge that students can also work here during their vacations, or to make any distinction between a US system where fees have to be paid up-front, and the loan-based system here that requires no tuition fees in advance and repayment is only according to income after graduation. Simply, like is not being compared with like,” an Oxford spokesman said.
Directors of admissions from both Oxford and Harvard are due to attend today’s conference, which should make it a lively event. Vince Cable, the Business Secretary who is responsible for universities, will make an opening speech.
The London School of Economics, for which costs of studying were cited in the report, also said the comparison with Harvard did not take into account how England’s student loan repayments work.
The Sutton Trust rejected the criticisms saying that, by finding term-time work for poor students, top US universities such as Harvard helped them minimise or avoid student debt.
Its report found a similar pattern in Britain, the US and Australia with teenagers from middle class families around three times as likely to attend a leading university as those with working class parents.
While most of the difference was due to children of professionals achieving higher exam grades, a significant amount or so-called “access gap” was due to other factors that discouraged poor teenagers with good grades from applying to highly selective universities.
In Britain 27 per cent of the “access gap” between poor and better off students was not related to exam grades. But figures were much worse for elite private US universities, with middle class teenagers six times more likely to attend that working clas students and an access gap of 52 per cent.

Apprenticeships- are they the way forward?

Top head Hilary French urges schoolgirls to jet into a job

 

Amina Tagari turned down an offer from Manchester University for a BAE Systems apprenticeship

PARENTS and teachers of privately educated pupils should stop being “sniffy” about the world of work and realise that in the future going straight into a job will be a better career option for high-flying children than university, a leading headmistress will warn next week.
At the annual conference of the Girls’ Schools Association, which represents 180 private schools, president Hilary French will predict “a shift of focus away from university as the automatic first choice next step for sixthformers and a turn instead to employment”.
“I’d like to challenge independent school heads to embrace this,” she will say. “Parents too. There is huge potential in employer training courses and the new calibre of apprenticeships emerging. We must not be sniffy about them.
“Yes, at the moment we may associate apprenticeships with lower level vocational training, but this need not and should not be the case.”
French, headmistress of Central Newcastle High School, where old girls include Miriam Stoppard, has started inviting employers to her school to publicise their job opportunities for 18-year-olds.
Her comments follow similar remarks by Barnaby Lenon, chairman of the Independent Schools Council, who called on Friday for an increase in work-based training to match the numbers going to university.
“University is not always the best route to a fulfilling job or maximising your job prospects,” said Lenon, former head of Harrow School.
Such remarks add to the evidence that teenagers, faced with £27,000 tuition fees for a three-year degree, may be better off with the kind of employer-sponsored schemes that are coming back into fashion.
Amina Tagari, 18, from Preston, is certain she made the right decision. The teenager, who scored AAB at A level at Cardinal Newman College in Preston, turned down Manchester University to become a a management apprentice working on aircraft projects with BAE Systems in Warton, Lancashire. Salaries start at more than £20,000. More than 20 people apply for each place.
“Most of my friends went to university — they sit in classes taking notes whereas I feel I am getting experience as well as learning. I will be more employable as a result,” she said.
The number of high-level apprenticeships is small but growing: up from 1,500 in 2009 to an estimated 5,300 this year. Firms offering such openings include Accenture, GlaxoSmithKline and National Grid. They made up 2% of the half a million apprenticeships last year.
Employers still have a job to convince parents of the merits of apprenticeships. Bob Paton, of Accenture, which is taking on more apprentices at the expense of graduates, said: “We are looking to invite parents to apprenticeship open days because they remain a big influence on youngsters.”
Nikki Cusworth, 23, from Glasgow, turned down offers to study for a degree in product design at the universities of Dundee and Strathclyde to become an advanced apprentice at Rolls-Royce. She has since progressed to its leadership development scheme.
“At the interview, the practical experience I would gain blew me away. I decided I was willing to do a HND through the scheme rather than an honours degree because the skills would be such an asset in my career,” she says. She is now working towards an MSc in engineering business management at Warwick University through the programme.
The government hopes to encourage people to follow Cusworth’s lead. “Apprenticeships are a crucial part of addressing Britain’s skills gap — concentrating only on academic training to the exclusion of technical training was a big mistake,” said Matthew Hancock, the skills minister.

Students off to Cheap US

Students off to cheap US

Sian Griffiths, Education Editor Published: 10 November 2013

 

Lucinda Denney picked Yale instead of Cambridge (Paul Cooper)

BRITAIN’S brightest students are being lured to America in greater numbers than before as degrees at top US universities become more affordable than those offered in the UK, according to new research.
The so-called brain drain will be illustrated this week by figures from the Fulbright Commission, which promotes educational exchanges between America and Britain, showing that the record number of UK undergraduates who went to US universities in 2011-12 — 4,330 — was exceeded in 2012-13.
Although many of those crossing the Atlantic to study are from fee-paying schools, a significant number — including almost a dozen who rejected Oxbridge places for scholarships at Harvard and Yale — are from state schools.
This year 150 students attended summer schools at Yale and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with more than half now intending to apply for degrees at Ivy League institutions. In an effort to attract applications from the UK, Harvard will host 50 British sixth-formers at its first summer school next year.
Research by John Jerrim, a lecturer in economics and social statistics at the Institute of Education in London, will this week show that some Ivy League universities are now more affordable than those in Britain.
According to Jerrim’s calculations, a student with a full bursary at Oxford from a family with an annual household income of £27,500 would be left with a bill for fees and living costs of £11,300 a year.
By contrast, he says, a British student with a full scholarship to Harvard would need to find only £2,000 a year to cover fees and living expenses.
For a student from a family with an annual income of £65,000 Harvard’s fee would be £8,243 a year — less than half of the £16,600 at Oxford.
Jerrim’s paper will be presented at a conference attended by Vince Cable, the business secretary, David Willetts, the higher education minister, and admissions officers from top British and US universities.
They will use the event to discuss if universities such as Oxford and Cambridge should follow the model of some US institutions by arranging part-time jobs for undergraduates to help them to deal with the cost of higher education.
Nick Bonstow began an interdisciplinary social studies degree at Harvard in September. One of triplets, the 18-year-old, who secured three A*s and one A grade at A-level from his grammar school in Torbay, Devon, said he expected to be financially better off than his siblings when he graduates.
“At Harvard, the university offered me a selection of jobs to help pay my way. I work in the finance office and earn £144 a week for 12 hours. I think British universities should bring this kind of system in.”
Lucinda Denney, from Blackpool, who has five As at A level, turned down Cambridge to go to Yale when it said it would cover almost her entire annual costs of $65,000 (£41,000).
Lauren Welch, director of advising and marketing at the Fulbright Commission, said: “The cost of completing an undergraduate degree in America has traditionally been higher than studying in the UK, but this gap has closed with the increase of tuition and fees at UK universities.
“In fact, over 900 US universities offer funding to international students. While full funding opportunities are competitive, a significant amount of funding is up for grabs.”
Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust think tank, said: “The broader study and generous aid packages at leading US universities makes them a hugely attractive option for British students.”

A job may be better than going to university - says the former headmaster of Harrow

‘A job may be better than going to university’

Barnaby Lenon called for a big increase in vocational and work-based training

Times photographer, Tom Pilston

 

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  Barnaby Lenon called for a big increase in vocational and work-based training Times photographer, Tom Pilston

Greg Hurst Education Editor

Last updated at 12:01AM, November 9 2013

Some students would be better off getting a job than going to university, the former head master of Harrow has said.
Barnaby Lenon called for a big increase in vocational and work-based training to match the expansion in numbers going to university.
“There are more than 200,000 undergraduates studying communications, marketing, art and design and business, and it is hard to believe that some of those — not all of those — would not actually have been better prepared for the job market doing vocational on-the-job training,” he said.
“University is not always the best route to a fulfilling job or maximising your job prospects. I come out of the independent sector and I would say the same thing to any student from any school or any walk of life: don’t go blindly down any one alley, but think carefully about the merits and limitations of each route to success.”
Mr Lenon, who is chairman of the Independent Schools Council, said: “The expansion of university education has been an incredibly good thing. I hope that it continues.
“Equally, I hope that the opportunity for good vocational education and apprenticeships grows as rapidly as university education grew in the 2000s, because for some people a more vocational course allied to work experience is a better preparation for the career they want to do than a university degree only remotely linked to their main interest in life.”
He was speaking after taking part in a student debate at the Oxford Union in which he opposed a motion that a university education was a right rather than a privilege. He said: “Taking it in the usual way people interpret rights and privilege, of course going to university is not a right and of course going to a university like Oxford is a privilege, and all the students knew it, and that’s why we won the debate.”
Mr Lenon’s comments came as it emerged that universities had built up record cash piles since their fees trebled to £9,000 a year. They accumulated cash surpluses of almost 6 per cent, about twice the norm, after the Government’s decision to raise the cap on undergraduate fees.
The figure was revealed by Steve Egan, acting chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, who said that building up large war chests enabled universities to benefit from cheap access to borrowing as banks were willing to lend them money at historically low interest rates.
The admission comes at a sensitive time as leading vice-chancellors have begun to lobby for the right to charge even higher fees.
The higher-education sector is also bracing itself for budget cuts after the general election and had to fend off claims from the Treasury during this year’s spending round that universities were “awash with cash”.
Mr Egan, who was addressing the funding council’s annual meeting in London yesterday, said that universities had faced claims that some might go bust as the Government ushered in market-style reforms to their funding and admissions. He displayed a series of slides that showed that universities had actually built up bigger cash piles than at any point in their history.
“We should be pleased that the sector has produced strong financial results when there was a concern that that would not happen,” Mr Egan said. “Most parts of the economy have accumulated cash — it is a sensible thing to do, it is how you manage risk, and with the increases in volatility of income, it is entirely to be expected.”
Vice-chancellors are urging the Government to raise the cap on fees again after the election. Professor Andrew Hamilton, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, called last month for the ability to charge fees closer to the £16,000-a-year cost of teaching an undergraduate at Oxford.

How to make your UCAS Application stand out - Advice for IB students.

IB uni application basics

• As an IB student, you apply to university courses through UCAS like anyone else – the only difference is the qualifications you list. 
• You'll usually be expected to have taken a higher level in a subject related to the course you're applying for.
• Universities will often ask for specific results in your higher level subjects as well as giving you a total points target.
• While there isn’t a direct parallel between higher level standards / A-level, and standard level / AS-level, it’s safe to assume that if a university asks for a particular subject at A2 level in its entry requirements, they’re likely to require it at higher level as part of the IB.
   

IB and UCAS points 

Like other qualifications, the IB is worth a different number of UCAS points depending on your final result, starting at 260 UCAS points for an IB score of 24. However, universities almost always make offers in terms of IB points rather than UCAS points so the UCAS tariff isn’t always helpful when comparing offers.

As an approximate guide, you can expect 36-38 points to be required for a course that asks for AAA at A-level, an AAB course is likely to require 34 points, ABB will usually require about 32 points and so on. The most competitive courses are likely to ask for 38 or 39 points.

Will my application be treated differently? 

Your application will go through the same process whatever your qualifications, and admissions tutors will be familiar enough with the IB to judge your application fairly.

Course offers given to IB students may sometimes appear more challenging than offers made to A-level candidates, but that’s usually down to how the IB and A-levels are graded – the points scale allows competitive universities to more keenly differentiate between very able IB candidates.

IB results are released to students on 5 July, so if you’ve got the results you hoped for you’ll receive confirmation of your university place well in advance of A-level students. ‘Near miss’ applicants can face a tense wait until A-level results come out for a final decision to be made about their place - but if you need to go through Clearing, you’ve got the extra time to plan in advance and be first on the phone.

Making the most of the IB

So how can your IB qualifications help when it comes to making your university application?

1. The IB is good preparation for university-level study

'The things you do - the extended essay, CAS [the Creativity, Action, Service programme], studying a wide range of subjects and so on – give you distinguishing features to push in your personal statement, as well as better prepare you for university study. Simply being an English student studying the IB may be enough to make you stand out from the pile of applications with A-levels.’ Daniel Penman | Ib Student Now Studying History At University Of Cambridge

2. It gives you a broad study base

The structure of the IB means you study a broad range of subject options. It’s compulsory to take English, maths, a science, a language and an ‘individuals and societies’ subject (such as history, geography or economics), plus a sixth subject of your choice.
This should set you in good stead when it comes to making your university choices, especially if you’re not sure what course you want to take, as you’ll be keeping your options open (nearly always better than opting for a narrower combination of subjects).

The IB is also particularly well-suited to subjects like law because of its breadth and rigour.

3. You've got lots of experience to shout about

Stress the extra experience your IB course has given you and how different elements of the course have helped to shape your skills, both on your UCAS form and during a university entry interview.

Picking your subjects

The subjects you choose will make a big difference to your application - and in particular your combination of higher level subjects – as these will usually determine what you go on to study at degree level. You’ll need to make sure you fulfil the requirements of the degree course you want, but also play to your strengths to ensure you get a good result.

‘Find where the gaps are and fill them in by taking extra modules (or offering to take extra modules) where necessary, and don't make life harder than you have to by taking the hardest optional sections.’ Emily Hale | Ib Student Now Studying Civil Engineering At University Of Edinburgh

When it comes to degrees that require maths qualifications, for instance  - such as maths, some economics and many engineering courses - you're likely to need higher level maths as opposed to standard level or maths studies. If you've got an idea of what you want to study at university, check the entry requirements of specific courses to find out what's expected.

Is it easier to study abroad with the IB?

As the name suggests, the IB is recognised internationally, and you should be able to use it to apply to university outside the UK.

However, other qualifications, including A-levels, are also recognised by universities around the world, so the IB may not be an advantage in itself. More important for studying abroad are good results and being able to speak the language.


Busy making your university application? Don't miss our expert advice on personal statements, admissions interviews and entry tests.

Which? University provides guest spots to external contributors. Brightside is an education charity which creates, develops and manages online mentoring projects, and other online tools and resources for students, including the Bright Knowledge website.

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