More from Gove ...
In every school year there are 600,000 children.
The very poorest are those eligible for free school meals - 80,000 in every year.
And out of those 80,000 how many do you think make it to the best universities?
Just 45.
I checked, and by "the best universities", Gove means Oxford and Cambridge (he had a spat about this factoid with Ed Balls earlier this year). Oxford and Cambridge have an annual undergraduate intake of about 3000 students each (ie, 1% of each school year if we accept the 600k figure), so if children eligible for free school meals were represented in proportion, there would be 800 of them there.
But, take the Aaronovitch Rule: reverse the figure. If Gove's dream were achieved, what happens to the 79,200 children eligible for free school meals who still don't get into Oxbridge? I don't know, but I suspect that the answer might involve the phrase "fuck 'em". This is, of course, the same thinking that names the "Grammar School System" after schools that are by definition not representative of the majority.
When I saw the speech, I initially assumed that "the best universities" meant the Russell Group, which would have been surely more meaningful (although even that wouldn't include York or Durham, which I think most people would include in that group). The Russell Group between them take in 75,000 undergraduates every year, so scaling that up would give you 10,000 new undergraduates at RG universities who had been entitled to free school meals. That actually would be a pretty radical and meaningful egalitarian move; I would still personally be asking awkward questions about the remaining 70,000 and still making the point that elite universities aren't a sensible metric, but ten thousand people a year moving from the bottom decile to (first approx) the top quintile would not be hay. Is that Gove's actual target? I suspect we'll never know and also suspect he's never considered it, because for some people it's Ox
Update: yes, I know, done it before. I think once every five years is about the right frequency for a trip round this particular mulberry bush.
[1] Let's not kid ourselves here.
Michael Gove, so far, seems to have added a hitherto unneeded rider to an old saw:-
ReplyDelete"Those who can, do; those who can't, teach; those who are complete fucking muppets, become a newspaper columnist."
I think about 15% of undergraduates are from Abroad, so you can lower your numbers a bit.
ReplyDeleteIt's a strange way of presenting a statistic though. It sounds bad if you say: "Did you know, of the 600,000 students in every year, only 5,000 get to the best universities".
Incidentally a back of an envelope calculation suggests if we had grammar schools there'd be 130 FSM pupils at Oxbridge, so probably supports your thesis.
I note that fifteen years of educational reforms has resulted in the Grammar school I went to many years ago having become almost exclusively middle class. The local Prep schools advertise their ability to get kids in.
ReplyDeleteMinor nitpick: the best universities are generally defined as Oxford, Cambridge and Hull, and of those only two are truly great universities.
ReplyDeleteI thought the strikethrough text and footnote at the bottom was making that point, subtly.
ReplyDeleteI can exclusively confirm that, after an embarrassing discussion with one of my younger colleagues the other day[1], that Blackadder references no longer form part of our common cultural heritage.
ReplyDelete[1] "You're calling your unborn child Bob. Have you found out what it's going to be yet?"
I thought you were making the more significant point that Gove and chums actually do tend to mean Oxford, as they don't really have room in their heads for another university.
ReplyDelete(In researching this, i.e. searching [Gove Oxford] in google, I found the second link for this is a Daily Mail article 'Top Tory Michael Gove and a five-in-a-bed Oxford 'romp'. I dare someone to read the story and report back)
yes that as well, although I am in a pretty poor position to criticise them on this account, as I also really can't get my head round the idea that there's an Oxford equivalent in the town of Cambridge. My wife claims to have gone there, but there certainly isn't anything remotely of the sort within walking distance of the train station.
ReplyDeleteThere's a train station in Cambridge? where?
ReplyDeleteMatthew you should really click through, if only for the picture of Gove as a student.
ReplyDeleteThere's a train station in Cambridge?
ReplyDeleteHaving worked next to, and been ripped off by the M&S inside, the thing for 15 months, I can confirm its existence.
I think Gove should have carried it through to its logical conclusion. "Just 45.
ReplyDeleteAnd of those, 21 went to Cambridge. And of the remaining 24, four went to St Catherine's, which isn't a real college - have you seen the architecture? Ghastly. And another nine studied engineering. Ugh! Spods! And three more did geography, which is basically just colouring in. Take out the five scientists as well - that's all lab coats and heavy metal t-shirts. And two of the remainder didn't even join the Union! So really, only one of them turned out Just Like Me..."
There's a train station in Cambridge? where?
ReplyDeleteIt's great: one of the platforms has a little sign reading, "Welcome to Cambridge: home of the Anglia Ruskin University".
"Oh, so that's this famous Cambridge Uni I've been hearing about..."
The last time I visited the centre of Oxford I failed to notice anything very different from, say, Harrogate. Mind you, the bit of the ring road that actually goes through the BMW Mini plant is quite impressive.
ReplyDelete(BTW, leaving Oxford railway station you'd also be forgiven for thinking you were in Reading or Bracknell.)
I've yet to call on Cambridge.
I knew quite a few Anglia Ruskin students at one point. 2/3s of them had dropped out within a year. It was about then that I thought that maybe this university expansion thing needed to be rethought...
ReplyDeleteRichard I lived behind the station for a year, just down from the Devonshire arms. Good times...
I almost went there. Wasn't nearly clever enough to apply for Cambridge proper, but I wanted to go to Footlights...
ReplyDeleteThe last time I visited the centre of Oxford I failed to notice anything very different from, say, Harrogate.
ReplyDeleteIf Oxford has gained a toffee shop and a Betty's in the four years since I last paid it a visit, I'll be glad to return.
Apparently Cambridge now has restaurants that serve food you might want to eat, and cafes that serve coffee worth a damn. Unbelievable.
ReplyDeleteWho needed coffee when you had The Free Press round the corner?
ReplyDeleteI now really want a Fat Rascal.