Members of the Kate Kennedy Club (dressed like idiots)

’19 YEAR OLD GRADUATED ETONIAN SEEKS social, intellectual and aesthetic equal. Must be pashmina clad, preferably adorning worn ballet pumps, Jack Wills tracksuit bottoms and in possession of a public school education?’

Is The University of St Andrews elite or elitist? Having been labelled last year the 3^rd best university in the UK by The Guardian and the 4^th by The Times Good University guide does its reputation as academically elite extend to its admissions policy?

The university has previously been accused of being elitist due to its poor record for admitting state school students. The university was adamant that it selects its student on the basis of their academic excellence, irrelevant of their educational background.

We are then faced with the dilemma of whether a university should favor state school applicants with lower grades over private school students with superior marks. In 2004 the Government was commanded to “take its tanks off Oxford’s lawns” when it threatened to apply financial penalties if Oxford university if it did not increase state school admissions. Although St Andrews has never received this ultimatum, having been attended by Prince William only a few years ago, it faces harsh criticism over its large percentage of private school students.

The Kate Kennedy club, does nothing to defend this reputation of elitism, similar to the Cambridge University Pitt club this group is ‘penises only’ and is selective in its membership. The University withdrew its recognition of the club earlier this year in an attempt by the female principal to stamp out elitism. Despite their reputation the Kate Kennedy does many productive things for the town, it holds many of the university balls, and regularly gives money to charity.

In practice St Andrews has its fair share of social cliques, nights out are split between social circles and house parties are not unknown to have bouncers at their doors. More common than not, student irrelevant of their background will be clad in the ‘fabulously British’ brand Jack Wills and drunken insults are reduced to ‘Do you know who I am?!’

Although without the openness of the Leeds art student who searched for the perfect husband as part of her art project, St Andrews has previously been coined ‘the English girls finishing school’ and boats the highest intermarriage rates of any university in the UK, its student pairing off with the symmetry of Noah’s Ark and going on to marry in selective St Andrews venues such as St Salvador’s chapel.

What do you think? Is St Andrews just a place for Rahs to meet, marry and then breed? Or is such a viewpoint simply boring old class warfare?

Related posts:

1. Students at St Andrews in KKK shame – well, Kate Kennedy…err…Klub
2. It’s time we gave up the lazy clichés and appreciated the Boat Race
3. The trials of Tom Daley explain what’s wrong with state education

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.

Related posts:

1. Is St Andrews elite or elitist?
2. Is Hermione Granger off to Yale?