SPECIAL FEATURE National Tutoring Programme
“We’re trying to reform the personal statements in an attempt to equal that playing field.”
At the moment, sadly, we live in a society where, if you do come from a poorer background, you are really up against it, I think, even if you have all the talent in the world. I think that that is a tragedy. What I hope is that a little bit of my work will help a few children to fulfil their potential. That is what it’s all about. You have warned of a clash of classes as students compete for elite university places. Could you expand on this idea for us? What is Exeter University doing to increase their diversity in terms of class, race and gender? Do you feel that there are some institutions who are leading the way in their methods to encourage social mobility?
So that was something I wrote about when there were suggestions that the number of university places would be fixed. Over recent years we’ve had an expansion of degree places, and the reason I wrote about the clash of the classes is that what we know from the evidence is that if you limit university places, then, if you have an effort to get children from a poorer background into university, then that will displace the number of children entering from a middle class background, who are trying to get the same university places. My hope would be that we can still expand university places for all. That is what you really want. There are all sorts of challenges to that, the government has in place the student loans, which students pay back eventually, but there is only so much money to
go around. I believe that we shouldn’t limit places, but at the same time, I do worry about the lack of advice and guidance. This is something I talk about in the Good Parent Educator book. I’m trying to make personal statements fairer for all pupils. Parents, teachers and tutors will help with personal statements, and we’ve found that it’s not really a reflection of these young people’s ideas or strengths. It’s more about who they’ve got around them supporting them in the process of writing those statements. It’s become a sort of game. We’re trying to reform the personal statements in an attempt to equal that playing field. I wrote into The Times, calling for a reform of all personal statements. It created a big response. I’m now working with UCAS, The Admissions Service, and the Government to try and help reform those personal statements. This is a great thing for me, as we have said, my hope to affect change. We would like to thank Professor Lee Elliot Major OBE from Exeter University for giving up his time to speak to us about his work on social mobility at Exeter University and his new book Good Parent Educator. To buy this book click here CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE PODCAST TURN TO PAGES 50 - 51 to read about Free Learning at Dulwich College
EDUCATION CHOICES MAGAZINE | S PRI NG 2022 | 39
