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Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK

hotminute.co.uk

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Re: Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK

#81

Post by croes »

AlexandrB wrote: post #32
ceejayoz wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The comic in https://pjhollis123.medium.com/careful-mate-that-foreigner-w... is, as ever, very relevant.

This is basically 100% backwards. In Canada it's large corporate lobbies pushing for more immigration. Why? Because it lets them keep wages low and makes unionization impossible. See also, Bernie 10 years ago: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vf-k6qOfXz0&pp=ygUVYmVybmllIG9... I don't know at what point people were convinced that the push against immigration is some kind of billionaire plot, but is has been great cover f…

Do you think billionaires care whom they exploit?

It’s a distraction and divide et impera to prevent that immigrant and lower class local workers join forces.

Some kind of employment ping pong. At the end it‘s always cheap labor

Re: Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK

#82

Post by NewJazz »

nicce wrote: post #63
foven wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why the process is not fixed from that part? Redesign in a way that private schools will not get any benefit from the process itself.

What is your specific proposal? Anything you do, the private schools will do their best to adapt.

Re: Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK

#83

Post by metaphor »

homeless_engi wrote: post #31

I think the real story here might be the line below: "Durham University improved by 30 places year-on-year" Seems a bit suspicious, no? What methodology change led to this result? How can a university that was previously not as well-regarded become the #3 in the country overnight?

What's the provenance of this "30 places year-on-year" assertion anyways? (TFA won't load on my end.)

The Times filed Durham 7th @ 859 in FY24[1], 5th @ 898 in FY25[2]. They're now 3rd @ 906 for the current FY.

P.S. Chuckling at the perception that a university which ranked top 10 for at least the past decade being characterized as "not as well-regarded"...strikes me as indefensibly elitist.

[1] https://archive.is/QN4Js

[2] https://archive.is/KyP48

Re: Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK

#84

Post by dan-robertson »

When I was a student, no one would seriously say they had a ‘doxbridge education’ for the same reason that saying you went to an ‘Ivy League school’ meant you went to a shit one like Brown (idk about the US rankings tbh; basing that on a Lisa Simpson nightmare). That’s still obviously true today.

I expect new hires at my employer and our competitors to continue mostly coming largely from Oxford and Cambridge (plus to a lesser extent Warwick, Imperial, and some European schools) and not much from Durham.

Re: Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK

#85

Post by afavour »

znpy wrote: post #53
afavour wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

As somebody that's not from the UK and not from the US, knowing this guy cheered the murder of Charlie Kirk gives me a strong hint about the kind of person it's being talked about. So yes, in that sense it's an useful piece of information.

> gives me a strong hint about the kind of person it's being talked about.

There was no person being talked about, though. This is a discussion about Oxford's university ranking. The GP brought up a person entirely irrelevant to that discussion and informed us of his views on a topic that's also irrelevant to the discussion.

Re: Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK

#86

Post by asib »

patanegra wrote: post #71
ceejayoz wrote: post #11

Earlier 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.

It's always the same argument. If you are world-class talent (someone who gets to Oxford), you should be capable of similar results as kids from independent schools. Like Joe Seddon did ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Seddon - growing up with a single parent mom, working as a therapist in NHS). It isn't fair to ask ones to have 4A* and others to have just 3As. Only 1 in 2600 gets 4 A . And 1 in 83 gets 3 As. Maki…

If it's so much easier to get into Oxbridge from a state school, why do you think people with the means send their kids to private school? They'd save so much money not doing so.

Re: Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK

#87

Post by zero_shift »

pxc wrote: post #17

What is the ranking supposed to reflect, exactly? Quality of education? If the programs have the same instructors, same facilities, same curricula, etc., why would we expect a small change to admission criteria to affect rankings of the program? I feel like this kind of change most likely reveals that rankings likely have little to do with quality of instruction; just another case of selectiveness being used (by empl…

> The list is based on analysis of student satisfaction with teaching quality and experience, entry standards, research quality, sustainability and graduate prospects

Re: Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK

#88

Post by yndoendo »

toast0 wrote: post #78
geremiiah wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In British English, "middle class" refers to the well off professional classes or merchant traders. In American English, if I understand correctly, everyone who works is considered middle class.

In America, we have a classless society and everyone claims to be middle class.

USA class system is based on income ranges. USA is also segregated by income and wealth.

Re: Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK

#89

Post by UK-AL »

yodsanklai wrote: post #44
ceejayoz wrote: post #11

Earlier 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.

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 edu…

When you have well off parents, you can literally be sent to prep schools which drill for these tests.

Re: Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK

#90

Post by dan-robertson »

JCM9 wrote: post #40

I 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.

When I was a student you would buy a book which had overall rankings, per subject rankings, and descriptions of all the ranked universities. I assume the book is what they are trying to sell rather than the papers and you want the latest edition to have up-to-date information about the universities. I’m not sure shuffling the rankings to sell papers makes that much sense but maybe the economics are different today.
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