Azhir Mahmood  🚀 🤖 🧬 🧠 🪐

But you know - sorting equality, diversity and inclusion - that's not a strategic objective that we take seriously… (Some of us do, but as a system and as individual Universities & research groups, do we really‽)

Being working-class BME & having graduated from a “world-class programmes”. I can confirm it is racist and there is a real lack of representation. OTOH, oxbridge STEM is significantly harder.. There’s a lack of uniformity across universities and degree programmes.

Not sure where the evidence is for OTOH: What's the comparitor? Is it "being harder" just because it's worse taught? Ultimately - what are we looking for in recruitment? The "Oxbridge or bust" culture in the UK is damaging.

The primary difficulty is a result of how marks and grades are assigned. (The workload is higher as well). Oxbridge degrees are graded using a non-linear function on a normal distribution. I.e some programmes require you to be in the top 60% to get a 2(I).

You’re also right that in oxbridge teaching isn’t great, there’s no support, there’s a lot of racism and BME/working-class students disproportionately underperform.

I don't believe that by default "Oxbridge degrees are harder" is a fair statement, nor useful & I think it plays into the narrative of an elite system, which is perpetuated by the Oxbridge, and more broadly, Russel group, clubs. I suspect it also furthers racism in our sector.

(I agree with all of the rest!)

You’re right. I should clarify, my experience is in the Maths & Physics Tripos’. Highlighting the lack of standardisation across degrees. We need a contextual approach, where prioritise an applicants background first & foremost. Recognising their achievements in a fair context.