Oxford and Cambridge to move away from ‘traditional’ exams to boost results of minorities. Universities considering open-book tests and take-home papers in bid to close achievement gap between students from different backgrounds

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/25/oxford-cambridge-move-away-traditional-exams-boost-results/

Posted by Make_the_music_stop

14 comments

  2. Not a lot of things surprise me anymore. But god damn, this is one of the most outrageous things yet.

  3. Telegraph reporting in good faith again.

    Different backgrounds….

  4. So, easing their examination methods to account for their profit driven admission approaches?

  6. Less than 1% of people go to Oxbridge.

    6% of people go to private school.

    41% of Rishi Sunaks 2023 Cabinet went to both private school and Oxbridge.

    So yes, it is about time something was done about Oxbridge admissions. People from working families are at a huge disadvantage in getting admitted, and at a further disadvantage for life because admission makes such a big difference to future earnings.

    Of course the telegraph will be against any increased chance of lads from the local comprehensive getting into Oxbridge. But how to rile up the average reader, they won’t be upset about poor people having an education… Oh, blame “minorities” and write the headline so it sounds like they’re trying to do something that hurts white people, rather than level the playing field of the elites and the working class.

  8. I mean open book exams can be much more challenging since the questions can be considerably harder and a lot of American unis do it for physics at least

    Ofc don’t expect this nuance from your typical Torygraph shit stirring

  9. When AGI is fully developed, we won’t need Cambridge for Oxford and the populous as a whole will become nothing more than dribbling infants

  10. They did this in America, lowering standards. And now a bachelor’s degree is practically worthless. 

  11. Lower class boys can get in by becoming trans, so there is that positive.

  12. I teach and give exams at ‘Oxbridge’. This is…well…simple hyper-generalised and distorted clickbait.

  13. Media really seem to be struggling lately to make their bad faith arguments.

    This is a good example, headline written to stoke outrage about brown people, when if you read it it’s about socioeconomic background. This is supporting the working class white boys that theyve used as a lever in the past, but because it’s actually being addressed, they have to try and frame it in their old battle lines, and it doesn’t fit…

  14. As someone matriculating in 2007, I think I had it in the best era.

    Past the era when what school you went to (private) was the sole determinant and before the era when it became about how many diversity buttons you could press.

    It was a good mix.

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