Grant Ritual
The announcement that a significant proportion of the Government's 'admissions grants windfall' will come to Oxbridge is to be warmly welcomed. Now more than ever, Oxford in particular needs to maintain its efforts to encourage access for students from under-privileged backgrounds. Because whatever we all know of the work of Target Schools and the Access Scheme, and whatever some of our fellow students may tell the Daily Mail, the national image of Oxford remains resolutely negative in this respect. Sadly, however hard those dedicated to improving access try, it seems that those in the national media willing to mis-interpret and distort the situation on will try harder. This new scheme could go some way to redressing the balance. Funding has always been the most insurmountable barrier for access schemes, as last year's paltry £9000 budget for Target Schools shows. A slice of the potential £18m that will become available would go down a treat in Oxford. There can be few universities where access issues are so perennially important, and to reflect this there is no university where access campaigners work more tirelessly. It is high time, as the HEFCE plan recognizes, that such work received the financial backing it deserves.
16th Nov 2000