Today’s news review looks at a report published by the Sutton Trust into the guidance school pupils receive on applying to Oxbridge.
Oxbridge applications
Today, 13 October, The Sutton Trust published research suggesting that more than 40% of state secondary school teachers do not encourage their brightest students to apply to Oxbridge.
The report, which comes just ahead of the Oxbridge applications deadline on 15 October, states that over four in ten (43%) of these teachers say they would rarely or never advise their students to apply to Oxford or Cambridge, while just one-fifth (21%) said they always advised this.
This was picked up in the Guardian, Daily Mail, the Sun and the TES. While coverage of this survey was not critical of the government, it is important to note that we are investing £90million in careers education, advice and guidance offered to young people, which we hope will help them to make informed choices.
A Department for Education spokesperson said:
There should be no barrier to any child’s ambitions and we are already seeing record numbers of young people going to university.
We know the importance of good careers education and guidance in helping young people, whatever their background, make informed choices - whether that is going on to the next stage of education, training or work. That is why we are investing £90 million to transform the quality of the careers education, advice and guidance offered to young people.
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