The Queen's College Newsletter: Trinity Term 2019

THE QUEEN’S COLLEGE
www.queens.ox.ac.uk
Contents
pages 2-3
Letter from the provost
Page 4
News from our students
Page 5
News from old members
Pages 6–8
News from the College
page 9
Clean-up success
page 10 The centre for manuscript and text cultures
Page 11
A glimpse of ancient egypt
pages 12–13 The chapel at 300
pages 14–15 The Queen’s College Translation Exchange
back cover
calendar
Cover photograph © David Fisher
letter from the Provost
I have been asked repeatedly about the well-publicised
initiatives to increase the number of applicants from
disadvantaged backgrounds who are admitted to Oxford.
Does this mean that Oxford is compromising on its mission to
admit only on academic grounds, or making contextual offers
based on perceived disadvantage? Disadvantage is, as we
shall see, multifaceted but if as a crude starting point we take
the state/privately educated measure then in October, if all
holding offers get through the A-level conditions, 64.5% of the
UK students admitted will come from state schools. Or 35.5%
from private ones, which may be compared with the 18% of
sixth-form students who are in private schools – a significant
“overweight” but by no means as “bad” as in much of the public
perception. Disadvantage is more complex than is captured
by the simple state/private measure, however. We know, for
example, that a large proportion of the Oxford students who
would be entitled to free school meals on the basis of their
family income (surprisingly, about 9% of the total) were privately
educated – presumably because their promise was recognised
early and they were given scholarships. The information we have
about applicants is their home postcode, taken as an indicator
of family means, and the history of their schools in progressing
candidates to higher education. Again, these provide imperfect
measures of disadvantage (called POLAR and ACORN) but they
are all we have to work with at the time of application.
The reason that the introduction of the initiatives has been
welcomed within Oxford is not because of a desire to match
the socioeconomic profile of the country per se or, indeed,
to respond slavishly to the media and government pressure
to achieve that objective, though it is certainly true that such
pressure is being exerted through the Office for Students and
will require a response. Rather, it is the desire to be admitting
the most talented and promising students who, by the end of
the course, will have achieved most. In other words, we have
become sensitised to the observation that our admissions
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process is biased towards achievement and preparedness at
17 and 18, rather than towards the capacity to achieve highly
at 21. Careful studies and tracking of all applicants have shown
that a very substantial number of rejected applicants who are
disadvantaged, at least according to the POLAR and ACORN
measures, go on to achieve A-level results which easily meet
the standard tariffs for the courses for which they have applied.
This, in itself, does not mean that they have the capacity to
achieve highly, but it suggests that closer attention should be
paid to them as they pass through the admissions process.
One of the initiatives is a response to this observation.
Disadvantaged students applying through UCAS are “flagged”
but pass through the admissions process in the normal
way. Each college will reserve a number of places for such
candidates who narrowly miss out on being offered a place.
They are made the same A-level offer as all the other candidates
applying for that course and agree to participate in a “bridging”
programme if they make the offer. This is a short residential
programme, between A-level results and the start of the
academic year, designed to facilitate the transition to their
course and Oxford. At Queen’s, we have always had a number
of places not allocated to particular subjects, and we will be
reserving two such places this year for the candidates identified
as above. This number is envisaged as doubling over the
subsequent four years, and for the University as a whole to see
about 200 students (out of 3,400) come to Oxford via this route
by 2023.
The second initiative is to present highly disadvantaged
candidates, for example those who have been in care or
come from a remote community with poor schooling, with
the opportunity to make an application during a residential
foundation year in Oxford. These candidates will have been
identified as highly promising by teachers, but would be highly
unlikely to make a successful application through normal
channels because of their educational disadvantage. Because
the initial application will not be made through UCAS, it will
be possible to ask for some hard information about their
circumstances. It is envisaged that about 30 students
each year will come through this route by 2023. Queen’s
will not be participating in this programme initially,
as we do not have the space or the resources to
deal with the foundation year. However, we will be
providing a substantial part of the funding for it,
and for the bridging scheme, through a system
of University taxation to which we make a large
contribution.
As I dare say you are aware, this will be my last
Newsletter before heading off into retirement.
I feel that I am leaving the College in good
shape, with the commitment to the tutorial
system and the presentation of opportunities
for further development to all students firmly
in place. The traditional strong sense of a
community extends throughout the College and
has come to embrace a large pool of Old Members,
who have been very generous and engaged. A lot
of high-quality building work has been done, but
I will also be bequeathing a number of projects to
my successor who, I am sure, will receive the same
level of support. I have enjoyed my eleven years “in
charge” enormously and they have been the highlight
of my career. I am very grateful to the large number of
people who have helped me – Fellows, Staff, students,
but particularly to Alison who has always been there.
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