THE WORKING CLASS REVISITED (March 4, 2003)

The Guardian published today an interesting table showing the percentage of working class entrants in about a dozen British universities across the range. As it appears in an article about a controversial government attempt to boost working class university entries, the table can be found on the very front page. Cambridge and Oxford are at the top with nine and ten percent, whereas Salford and Wolverhampton are at the bottom with thirty-three and forty-eight percent, respectively. Perhaps not surprisingly, the line-up matches the sundry league tables of British universities pretty well, putting such tables’ worth in serious doubt. Apparently, the percentage in question is easy to obtain from the university records. Be that as it may, all the government needs to do to improve higher education in Britain is boost working class entries at the bottom of the table and squeeze it at the top. Two birds with one proverbial stone!