Table-talk
OXFORD SLIPPED to third, behind Cambridge and Imperial College, in the Times League Table of Universities published last Friday. The Times' table is the longest standing University league table and takes its data from sources respected among academics.
Cynics have, however, questioned the integrity of recent League Tables in national newspapers, noting the prevailing trend to place Cambridge first, Oxford third and a 'guest' University in second place. Recent 'guests' have included Imperial College, York and Warwick.
Sir Ron Oxburgh, rector of Imperial College, said, "I have a real concern that Oxford is being held back by a system of internal governance that it has been slow to revise." But are the league tables really an accurate reflection of the actual performance of Universities? The Times Higher Education Supplement of April 23rd published the individual league tables for entry standards, research and other areas from which the overall league table was built up. They revealed that only 61% of Imperial students gained a two:one or first class degree compared to 78% at Oxford. Oxford also came above Imperial for the level of its entry standards, the standard of its research and library expenditure.
Imperial has benefited from only covering lucrative science subjects while Oxford suffers from not having individual colleges' expenditure on facilities and teaching staff taken into account by the Times. However the 1996 research assessment concluded that Oxford research was the best in the country, something the Times does not recognise in its table, raising questions about which data is included and how it is weighted. The Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principles told the Oxford Student, "Tables that conflate teaching and research results and a whole host of other criteria and then boil them down into a general rating are not particularly helpful." Appalled at the league tables produced by the media, the Higher Education Funding Council, which took the data for the research assessment, is considering starting its own league table.
In an accompanying article to the league table the Times claimed that St. Anne's was Oxford's only all-female college despite the fact that St. Anne's has been admitting men since 1978, wheras St. Hilda's, on the other hand has shown an unwillingness to countenance men.