Undergraduates at Oxford are selected by college tutors and their faculties, not by college administrators (“Oxbridge colleges named and shamed for failing to admit disadvantaged students”, News). Tutors have no interest in what kind of school applicants come from. In my experience as head of a college and chairman of the undergraduate admissions system, if there is any ingrained bias, it is in favour of state schools. The sole criterion for admission is whether tutors believe applicants are adequately prepared for the rigours of an Oxford degree and whether they have the potential to do well. Given the more intensive teaching and other resources that private school pupils typically enjoy, it is hardly surprising that a much higher proportion are able to demonstrate academic aptitude.
For many years, Oxford has been trying to improve the percentage of undergraduates from state schools. There are no quick fixes. Contextual information can and does help inform the judgment about preparedness but can’t change it fundamentally. Admitting students who are going to struggle does them no favours. Changing the syllabus so as to make it more accessible is another possibility, but that raises wider issues.
Giving administrators power over admissions so as to override the judgment of tutors isn’t necessarily the answer either. At elite American universities, where admissions are largely in the hands of administrators, they typically perpetuate privilege by giving preference to the offspring of alumni.
Tim Lankester
London NW1
You equate state educated with disadvantaged, which is deplorable. My two sons both went to the local comprehensive and neither of them is in any way disadvantaged. The younger one will graduate from Oxford next summer.
Karin Forbes
Wareham, Dorset
Shakespeare’s strong women
Women as evil figures behind the throne in Shakespeare’s plays, such as Lady Macbeth, are hardly a challenge to what had until then been seen as their “natural bounds” (“Revealed: the ruthless power seekers of ancient Rome who inspired Lady Macbeth”, News). The pattern of evil female ambition channelled through husbands or sons goes back at least as far as Livy. There are several such figures in earlier Shakespeare plays, such as Queen Margaret and the Duchess of Gloucester in Henry VI, and Queen Eleanor and Lady Constance in King John.
More significant for the changing view of women are characters in later plays, who are neither villains manipulating menfolk nor helpless victims such as Ophelia, but assertive in their own right, such as Helena in All’s Well, Cordelia in King Lear and Paulina in The Winter’s Tale. It took Shakespeare about 15 writing years and 30 plays to transcend the twin female stereotypes of active evil and passive virtue. The trajectory, paralleled in attitudes to war and accountability of rulers, is traced in my new book, Shakespeare and Democracy (Troubador, 2015).
Gabriel Chanan
Ascot, Berks
Ongoing Jewish life in York
I read with great interest the article about the revival of a Jewish community in York (“Eight centuries after the pogrom, pride flickers again in York’s Jewish community”, News). Ben Rich is to be congratulated on his initiative and perseverance.
I would just point out one misleading statement. The article implied that there had been no Jewish life in York since the closure of the synagogue in 1975 until Ben revived it in 2013. In fact, the Jewish community in York continued to meet in all the intervening years for major festivals and socially. In more recent years, despite dwindling numbers, the original community have met every year for a Passover Seder meal and a Hanukah celebration. Indeed, in 2015, I led a Seder attended by 25 members and have just celebrated Hanukah with over 30 members.
Despite its turbulent and unhappy history, we can all be proud that York now has two Jewish communities.
Steve Griffiths
Lincoln
Council tenants with principles
Barbara Ellen puts forward several reasons why some tenants did not buy their council house (“Are you a council tenant? Then you must be punished”, Comment). There is another. Some, including my parents, had principles and believed in social housing. My parents said: “Why would you deprive future generations of a home?” They simply believed others should have the opportunity they had – to live in a nice house that they would look after with a tenancy they knew was secure. But that was also at a time when there was no stigma about living in social housing.
Barry Norman
Leeds
Wonderful Christmas dinners
Reading about Lemn Sissay’s upbringing was heartbreaking (Food Magazine). To be abandoned by his birth mother and then again by his foster parents and dumped in a home was beyond cruel, but he has gone on to create something wonderful. His Christmas dinners for young care leavers deserve to be acknowledged and supported, (crowdfunder.co.uk/the-Christmas-dinner-2015), especially by those of us more fortunate in our childhood.
Geraldine Blake
Worthing
