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Oxford 'will not lower' admission requirements

Posted on 29th May 2008

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Oxford University has said it will not lower its entry requirements to make it easier for secondary state school pupils to join.

The chancellor of the university Lord Patten said that the state education system and not strict admissions conditions was to blame for more secondary pupils not securing places.

Lord Patten was speaking at the launch of a fundraising initiative to raise £1.25 billion to allow Oxford to expand and better compete with the American Ivy League universities.

He told the university's alumni audience: "It does nobody any good to think that you can deal with the problems of secondary education by lowering standards in our universities," the Guardian reports.

Lord Patten added that Oxford had not changed in its attempts to attract pupils from maintained schools but that the changes had happened elsewhere in the education system, particularly in relation to the low aspirations promoted by state teachers.

The last two governments had introduced targets and policies to push universities in what it deemed to be the right direction, he said.

However, he added that the government had at the same time remained "pretty tight-fisted" in higher education funding, the Independent reports.
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