It’s time we gave up the lazy clichés and appreciated the Boat Race
This Sunday, Oxford and Cambridge will race from Putney to Mortlake – a little over 7km – in one of the most famous events on the British sporting calendar. The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race is watched by millions around the world, with audiences far beyond the two universities and rowing community. Yet the focus in the press during the build-up to Sunday’s race has once again centred upon the number of foreign oarsmen and a long running debate about the “elitism” of Oxbridge.
Firstly, we need to get one thing straight. This is a university boat race which means the selection criteria is simply a matter of those who are presently taking a degree in the relevant institution. The issue of nationality should play no part. True, many students in Oxbridge are foreign nationals, but then many Brutish students take up the opportunity to study abroad. If anything, the number of foreign students in our Universities should demonstrate the high standards of further education Britain has to offer.
Secondly, the term “elitism” is often brandished without being properly defined. Any university should be elitist to the extent that it seeks only the academic elite of those who apply. In this respect, Oxbridge is proud to be elitist. However, the meaning usually given (or confused with the above) is a sense of snobbery. People thus focus on the number of public school entrants and the lack of state school oarsmen. (Something that is hardly surprising given that rowing is rarely taught in state schools and indeed often shunned as “posh” by those who attend.)
The real problem with Oxbridge admissions is the unwillingness of state school students to chance their arm for fear of being rejected for the first time
Anybody wishing to be eligible for selection to a boat must first pass the academic rigour of the admissions process. Whatever the press may think, this is blind to both nationality and rowing ability. Once this hurdle is passed, the demands of perhaps the most intense degrees in the world must be balanced with over 10 training sessions a week and a diet of more than 4,500 calories a day. Whilst such a training regime is as tough as any in professional sport, it is made all the more difficult as it must be fitted in around lectures and supervisions – this means early starts and late finishes.
There are obvious examples of those who fall short of these demands. Some drop out or fail their exams, the most famous recent example being Thorsten Engelmann who stroked the Cambridge boat in 2007. These failures are seized upon, as we British love nothing more than seeing those who seem like they have it all fail.
But perhaps we should take a second to consider what we could take from the Boat Race. These are young(ish) people who have proven what can be achieved by reaching out. If this example was followed by more of the state school pupils (accustomed to being a big fish in a small pond) who tell themselves “Oxbridge is not for them” out of fear of failing, then Oxbridge would become less “elitist” and the population of foreign and public school students would fall.
I, for one, advocate that only the brightest and best be admitted to Oxbridge regardless of their background (an opinion I have held only since I arrived at Cambridge), and see the real problem in admissions being the unwillingness of state school students to chance their arm for fear of being rejected for the first time. The coverage of the boat race highlights these problems. Instead of holding up those who take part as examples of what can be done, we focus on those who fail and in the process debase the achievements of those who succeed.
Whilst it is not a traditionally British thing to do, maybe we should focus on those who succeed as an example of what can be done with determination and skill instead of finding ways to reduce their achievements in order to mitigate our own shortcomings.
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