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U.S.A
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CANADA
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AUSTRALIA
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SINGAPORE
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Trust Brains
September, 30, 2004, How extraordinary it is to rank universities by the social class of their students, as the Government's Higher Education Statistics Agency did yesterday. By all means classify them by their intellectual standards, because that is the point of universities. But it is the only point. To rank them by privilege is as perverse as ranking them by disabled access or the number of fizzy drinks machines in the Junior Common Room. Universities are intellectual training grounds, not social engineering foundries.
It is positively perverse to say Cambridge is evil for taking 42.4 per cent of its undergraduates from independent schools, while praising Westminster University for being admirably working-class. What matters is that Cambridge - as a worthwhile ranking revealed last month - is the best academic institution in the country and the third best in the world (after Harvard and Stanford). By contrast, Westminster University has one of the worst drop-out records in the country, with more than one student in five failing to finish his course, let alone compete with the greatest universities on earth.
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In order for the top British universities to go on competing, they must be allowed to let in anybody they want, as long as they're clever. It needn't matter whether they let in only dukes, or only dustmen, as long as they let in the best.
It is no coincidence that the best universities have more independently educated students; not because of some bias on the part of admission tutors, but because independent schools are allowed to work free of the crude interventionist techniques exemplified by this new government survey.
The percentage of undergraduates at top universities from the private sector was much lower 40 years ago, before the mass closure of grammar schools, by both Tory and Labour governments. That percentage has steadily grown as parents move heaven and earth - and often home - in order to get their children into a half-decent school that is independent of government control.
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Charles Clarke, the Education Secretary, hasn't revealed what cruel punishment awaits those universities that aren't inclusive enough, but he doesn't really have to go to the bother of deciding on one. Most universities are so supine that they will start the social engineering now, after this crude naming and shaming exercise. The brave ones will ignore this evil blue-blood league table and go on trusting in brains alone.
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Seriously speaking Dr. Paul Chellakumar is absolutely excellent in his service. I personally believe no one can give better ideas than him in U.K. education. 