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Will Labour Adopt the 10% Limit on Private School University Places?

by Dr Nicholas Tate
16 September 2024 7:30 PM

Professors Aaron Reeves and Sam Friedman in their book Born to Rule: The Making and Remaking of the British Elite have advocated that all Russell Group universities should not be allowed to take more than 10% of their entries from private schools (10% being the current proportion of university students nationwide who have been privately educated at some point). Oxford and Cambridge, within the system they propose, should receive their allocation by lottery from within the group of privately educated pupils who have achieved the top 5% of A Level results. This, they argue, is needed to ensure that the country’s elite becomes more meritocratic.

The book arrives at a timely moment. No previous Government would have looked seriously at these proposals. The current Labour Government, already at war with private schools over VAT, may well be tempted to give them consideration. As well as being in my opinion fundamentally unjust and unfair – like all affirmative action that puts aside the results of objective assessments – the consequences might be extremely negative, with major potential damage to a private school sector that is very successful in educating students and preparing them for higher education and from which the nation as a whole benefits.


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Tags: CambridgeLabourMeritocracyOxfordSocialismUniversities

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9 Comments
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DiscoveredJoys
DiscoveredJoys
10 months ago

 I agree that we need to think about how we might help a much more permeable elite to evolve, with far more representation from parts of the country currently neglected, and one that acts for the common good and respects the liberties of its fellow citizens rather better than our current one.

I know… how about we stream pupils into more demanding academic institutions that feed the universities and others into more trade oriented institutions that feed businesses. We could call them grammar schools and secondary moderns. Of course judging people by their merit or ability is frowned upon by socialists. I think they fear clever people who might see beyond their posturing.

8
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
10 months ago
Reply to  DiscoveredJoys

I was about to make the same point – if they believed in meritocracy they’d bring back grammar schools. But they don’t. They seem to believe in destroying our civilisation. Maybe they fancy being like Idi Amin – absolute rulers of a Third World country.

6
0
Norfolk-Sceptic
Norfolk-Sceptic
10 months ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

The extremely mediocre don’t ‘reach for the stars’, do they?

No, they promote NET Zero and other uniparty policies, and denigrate all curiosity.

1
0
Matt Dalby
Matt Dalby
10 months ago
Reply to  DiscoveredJoys

This is common sense that should be blindingly obvious to politicians. Not all young people are able to do well at academic subjects and this could be part of the reason why many youngster are disengaged from education and frequently truant. It’s possible to find something that’ll be of interest to a young person. There could be a system, starting at age 13 or 14 whereby pupils that regularly attend school for 2 or 3 days a week can spend the other 2 or 3 days at a vocational college working towards a qualification as a mechanic, beautician or whatever interest them. If they fail to attend school, or are regularly disruptive they could be suspended from their vocational course which would be a real deterrent if they enjoy their time in college

2
0
JohnK
JohnK
10 months ago

It might happen automatically, if we believe in the potential effect of VAT on private education, if the proposed limit would only apply to UK private schools (excluding foreigners from the limit).

1
0
The Real Engineer
The Real Engineer
10 months ago
Reply to  JohnK

Surely the next step is to apply VAT to Universities? All the useless ones will collapse and we will have the system back which used to work well, it used to need real brains to get a University degree, and the value will return. Presently they are pretty much a valueless holiday for many, and a meaningless qualification at the end.

1
0
The Real Engineer
The Real Engineer
10 months ago
Reply to  The Real Engineer

The rationing should be by ability, not some arbitrary percentage of numbers by school. Any good students in the private sector will simply go abroad for education at school age, probably Germany as it’s education is miles better than Britain’s, and you can do science or engineering!

1
0
Greenslime
Greenslime
10 months ago

A 10% limit is insane. It is just a stupid, pointless, application of bias from the left. Most working class people couldn’t give a toss about this. I never went to university. My partner did. Neither of us went to private school, but having seen the appalling levels of state education, we both scrimped and scraped to send our daughter to a private school. There she worked extremely hard and won a place to a good university. The only way to get more state pupils to university should be to raise the standards. Don’t push down, pull up!

1
0
Hardliner
Hardliner
10 months ago

Probably won’t all agree, but privately educated pupils tend to have very good social skills and contacts, and that will see them through. There are too many university places by a factor of 10, let them go bust, and take their left-leaning staff with them. Let’s see how much of a Labour vote winner that turns out to be…

1
0

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