Today our blog looks at new admission schemes at Oxford University, as well as the approval of two new Maths Schools.
Oxford Admissions
Today, Oxford University announced two new admissions schemes to help boost the number of disadvantaged students they are enrolling. This has been covered by the BBC Online, the Guardian, the Independent, the Telegraph, the Times, the Mail and the Sun.
The university says the programmes will offer places for up to 250 state school students a year, representing 10% of Oxford's UK undergraduate intake – a great step to increasing diversity and access for a wider range of students.
Minister for Universities Chris Skidmore said:
We welcome these new schemes from Oxford University, because everyone who has the potential should be given the chance to succeed at our world leading universities.
We have made great progress in ensuring universities are open to all, with record rates of disadvantaged 18-year-olds in higher education. But much more needs to be done and we expect the sector to make significant progress in the coming years.
Access and participation plans, which universities will be drawing up this year for implementation in 2020-21, should contain ambitious actions to make sure we are seeing real progress in access and successful participation. If they don’t, we have given the Office for Students power to take action.
Maths Schools
Today, two new government-approved maths schools have been announced – by Lancaster University in partnership with Cardinal Newman College, and by Surrey University in collaboration with Guildford Education Partnership. This was covered by Schools Week.
Schools Minister Lord Agnew, said:
Maths schools support talented young people to reach their potential by tapping into the expertise of top universities – and Ofsted has found that they excel in recruiting students from disadvantaged backgrounds to fulfil their potential.
I’m confident that these exciting partnerships will build on those successes and boost the prospects of talented mathematicians in the regions.
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