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First impressions count. As one of the few people on the planet who has failed undergraduate interviews for Oxford (twice), Cambridge and Harvard, this is something that the Banned Blogger appreciates more than most. Indeed, being banned from writing under my real name does rather suggest a failure in the interpersonal relations department still exists.
This might be expected to lead to bias against Oxbridge and all it still stands for: academic excellence, privilege, and a meal ticket for life helped along by the right to be first in the queue in the recruitment zone, the gene pool and the Houses of Parliament. This is perhaps unfair to those of other perfectly good universities, but the fact of the matter is that all of them are easier to get into and have lower standards.
Indeed, when you add in the oral element of entry for Oxbridge, the message is that in getting into and to a lesser extent graduating from these institutions you have beaten the odds in the way that until now only a successful X Factor contestant would be aware of. And of course the concept here is winning and having confidence. It is a point underlined by the high jinks of the Oxford undergraduates, and the type of behaviour that would shame even participants of a Roman Orgy.
But putting it bluntly these young people know they have “made it” already – from the age of 18, we will hire them, vote for them and even if they choose to sweep roads later in life we will be happy to provide a cerebral or even existential significance to what they do.
We all love winners and we want the magic to rub off, which makes it somewhat strange and inappropriate that there is such criticism in the media for the increasingly frequent anti-social activity (largely drinks and drugs), perhaps culminating with an infamous guide on how to bed an undergraduate.
But the message is that these people are our betters even if this is a self fulfilling prophecy, and even if they are we wrongly give the alumni a leg up, and the benefit of the doubt again and again – look at David Cameron. The assumption seems to be that if they can go to Oxbridge they can achieve anything whether the aptitude for the pursuit in question is there or not – from being Prime Minister to rock climbing.
This is of course a dangerous assumption to make, one that can blow up in our collective faces as not everyone at these two ancient universities is an academic. Some get there because they are good at sports, or of course because they are pretty. Nevertheless, given the way that the bulk of our rulers and betters have been to Oxbridge should not the debate in the media be how this model for greatness can be spread across the whole of the university system, rather than the focus on the debauchery, which is clearly a blueprint for greatness later in life, whether we like it or not. Bring on the dreaming spires, the punting, the May Balls and a decent detective series, I bet London Metropolitan University has none of these.
