If academic performance is no longer the main criteria for admission then it's no surprise that Oxford's ranking has gone down.
Elaborate?
Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK
41–50 of 446 posts
Re: Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's letting in dumber people, worse students. Is it? Maybe a kid managing to struggle through a shitty school has to work harder than, say, Prince Charles with his private school and dedicated personal tutors.
>Maybe a kid managing to struggle through a shitty school has to work harder It sounds like you think admissions should be based on how hard people think they worked relative to others.
Maybe they should be based on a range of factors that influence how successful the university thinks the candidate will be as an undergraduate? Not just exam results?
Re: Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK
#43pg thinks this is because of letting in poor people: https://xcancel.com/paulg/status/1969334665375813679
The comic in https://pjhollis123.medium.com/careful-mate-that-foreigner-w... is, as ever, very relevant.
No, I don’t think it is. There is no billionaire secretly hoarding all the top university spots. And no one is saying immigrants are taking the spots. This seems like completely unrelated political posting
Re: Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is extremely unfair framing. Oxford University has been discriminating people from independent schools for a while now. To get in, you need 4 A* from an independent schools, or just 3 As from state schools. That's not "letting in poor people" as you framed it. It's letting in dumber people, worse students. Lots of that is mainly based on classism (against people from middle class), racism (against white people).…
> It's letting in dumber people, worse students. Is it? Maybe a kid managing to struggle through a shitty school has to work harder than, say, Prince Charles with his private school and dedicated personal tutors.
But does Oxford want the best student or some that had to work harder but ultimately aren't as good?
In France, our elite scientific schools recruit students based on anonymous nationwide tests. It turns out most of the recruits come from privileged backgrounds, and I've heard this is more the case today than it was several decades ago.
I'd love to see more diversity in these schools, but I prefer to maintain our educational excellence rather than dilute it artificially with worse students. I'm all for paying tutors to poorer but promising student, but they should be admitted against the same criteria as anyone else.
Re: Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK
#45If academic performance is no longer the main criteria for admission then it's no surprise that Oxford's ranking has gone down.
It is still the main criterion.
Re: Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK
#46pg thinks this is because of letting in poor people: https://xcancel.com/paulg/status/1969334665375813679
> Middle class students, knowing they'll be discriminated against, are now applying to US schools I can't take that seriously. Middle class students in the UK would not take on the level of student debt required to study in the US, the sums of money required are vastly, vastly different between the two countries. Sounds like PG has a hobby horse he very much wants to ride no matter what the facts show.
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Re: Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
>To get in, you need 4 A* from an independent schools, or just 3 As from state schools. Or ABB for the incoming president of the Oxford Union, the one who cheered Charlie Kirk's murder a few months after debating him in person. https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/education/2025/09/oxfo... >
It would be wonderful if we could, just once, have a conversation about something happening outside the US without bringing in US culture war talking points.
> incoming president of Oxford Union
> debated Kirk [at Oxford]
> cheered assassination of Kirk, which happened within months of debate
Is this really dragging American culture war into things? This is clearly relevant to Oxford
Re: Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK
#48pg thinks this is because of letting in poor people: https://xcancel.com/paulg/status/1969334665375813679
This is extremely unfair framing. Oxford University has been discriminating people from independent schools for a while now. To get in, you need 4 A* from an independent schools, or just 3 As from state schools. That's not "letting in poor people" as you framed it. It's letting in dumber people, worse students. Lots of that is mainly based on classism (against people from middle class), racism (against white people).…
The kids at private schools are specifically primed for every part of the application process, including the interview and interview questions in a way that state schools simply cannot. It does not matter how smart you are if your competition is able to practice in a way you cannot.
Re: Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK
#49pg thinks this is because of letting in poor people: https://xcancel.com/paulg/status/1969334665375813679
While your link is helpful, he did not say that. He specifically mentions changing the admissions standards. Specifically having different standards for different social classes. I have second handedly seen the effects of such discrimination in other societies and it really is crippling to the economy. Be wary of any kind of discrimination specifically one that lowers expected grades.
> Now they have lower standards for applicants from poor families or bad schools. As a result Oxford and Cambridge have sunk to fourth place in the latest Times Good Universities Guide.
He did say exactly that.
Re: Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK
#50I don’t think many people place much stock in these rankings, and if they don’t have “shocking” moves then how are they gonna sell papers and get people to click!?! An article on the site says “Durham wins University of the Year and dismisses Oxbridge reject stereotype.” Not to be cold, but willing to bet that a good chunk of the Durham student population are those that were passed over by Oxbridge.
I’d be willing to bet the number of students that pick a UK university over Oxbridge in the next year will round to 0%. The times rankings mean nothing at this granularity (whereas being top 20 vs top 100 _is_ significant)