Anti-English bias at Edinburgh University

The Times today reports that Edinburgh are preferential to Scottish applicants and biased against most English applicants.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article7068993.ece

Is this fair (I think not!), and more crucially, did Edinburgh make this clear in their prospectus before English candidates applied and risked it being a wasted choice?

Reply 1

JW92

18

It does say somewhere in the back of the prospectus, with all Edinburgh's other silly mitigating circumstances. Edinburgh like to think that they can rival Oxford and Cambridge, but with such a daft admissions policy combined with the fact that they rarely interview, they're only going to carry on slowly dropping down the league tables.

Reply 2

TheOneWho

12

Scotland has a history of students going to their 'local' university. Edinburgh is trying to maintain this.

Also, it is students from the south of England, not England as a whole. It may also be a method to stop the rise in English students coming north because of the lower fees.

Reply 3

TribeSpirit

I wanna know how far north they define as north. I live near Newcastle and it's the same at my college, out of the people who've applied (which the majority are straight A students) there's only a really small percentage who have got in

Reply 4

CharlotteCoster

i read that article as well and its certainly true for my school. so many straight a students applied though and i don't think any of them got in.

Reply 5

DJ AgnieszkaA

15

its their university, they can be biased for/ against whomsoever they wish.
that includes bias against me.

Reply 6

JW92

18

TheOneWho

Also, it is students from the south of England, not England as a whole.

TribeSpirit

I wanna know how far north they define as north. I live near Newcastle and it's the same at my college, out of the people who've applied (which the majority are straight A students) there's only a really small percentage who have got in

According to the website, it's the rest of Scotland, Cumbria, Northumberland, Durham, Teeside and Tyne and Wear. So it's not just 'the south' by a long shot, but it does include Newcastle.

Reply 7

splotchy

OP

On the beeb news website it cites Edinburgh as saying they will prioritise applicants from a number of local scottish regions first, then the rest of scotland with nothern england (tyneside, Cumbria, Northumberland, Durham), then the rest of England last.

In this report, Edinburgh also say:

"In common with other selective universities, the University of Edinburgh wishes to ensure that highly able students from its local area are encouraged to study at one of their local universities, despite intense pressure on places. For this reason, local applicants are afforded a small weighting in the admissions selection process."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8577100.stm

This bit about 'In common with selective universities.....' seems odd. What other universities have prejudice on geographical terms?

Reply 8

moregano

18

I went to school in Edinburgh and they had "access schemes" for local pupils. One time on an access scheme visit day they told us they gave priority to Edinburgh students > Scottish students > English students and everyone else.

Everyone I can think of in my school who applied to Edinburgh got in. They also got early offers, as opposed to people from elsewhere who, judging by the architecture offers thread this year, have to wait longer to hear back.

It's not just Edinburgh who's guilty of this though. My year head at Dundee has gone to China this week to try and attract more Chinese students to apply "because the school get a lot of funding for Chinese students" or something along those lines.

Reply 9

splotchy

OP

its their university, they can be biased for/ against whomsoever they wish.
that includes bias against me.

Actually they can't. There are laws about certain biases, eg disability, sex, religion, race - possibly this sort of discrimination might be unlawful on the grounds of race.

Reply 10

Evenfall

Wtf?!??! I swear 60-70% of people in my girlfriend's maths class are English/ American/ Canadian.

Reply 11

splotchy

OP

Apart from whether this is lawful, or moral, or whatever, surely at the very least Edinburgh (and any other university which does this) should be 100% open about this on prospectuses and in correspondence with head-teachers?

I wonder if UCAS have a view on it?

Reply 12

TribeSpirit

JW92

According to the website, it's the rest of Scotland, Cumbria, Northumberland, Durham, Teeside and Tyne and Wear. So it's not just 'the south' by a long shot, but it does include Newcastle.

Yeah I read that bit, which is what confused me about where they claim to be giving offers.

Reply 13

nearlyheadlessian

15

splotchy

This bit about 'In common with selective universities.....' seems odd. What other universities have prejudice on geographical terms?

Almost every single university in the UK has a local access scheme - this is in no way at all different.

splotchy

surely at the very least Edinburgh (and any other university which does this) should be 100% open about this on prospectuses and in correspondence with head-teachers?

Edinburgh has always been open about this - I don't know why it's news today, they've had these policies for years.

splotchy

Actually they can't. There are laws about certain biases, eg disability, sex, religion, race - possibly this sort of discrimination might be unlawful on the grounds of race.

It's not in way at all illegal to discriminate in terms of residency. They DO NOT favour "Scottish students", they favour applicants who are resident and attend schools in certain areas. This can mean that a Scot, an Englishman and an Indian who go to School in Galashiels all get equal consideration geographically but are a notch above people of the same nationalities in London. That's not racist. And the English (in case you hadn't noticed) are not a different race to the Scots.

TribeSpirit

Yeah I read that bit, which is what confused me about where they claim to be giving offers.

What's confusing about that? Edinburgh make offers to loads of applicants (you need only spend some time in the university of edinburgh subforum to see that). The reality is that when you have too many applicants relative to the number of places you have to reject more people than you accept. Sorry.

Reply 14

Duckzilla

15

I think this is ridiculous. As said in the article, the majority of Scottish students would kick up a fuss if Oxbridge said they gave more weighting to students from the east or south-east of England. It is discrimination and shouldn't be allowed to continue.

Reply 15

JW92

18

TribeSpirit

Yeah I read that bit, which is what confused me about where they claim to be giving offers.

I really doubt that Edinburgh gives the same kind of priority to Geordies as it does to Scots to be honest.

Reply 16

jonny23563

12

splotchy

Actually they can't. There are laws about certain biases, eg disability, sex, religion, race - possibly this sort of discrimination might be unlawful on the grounds of race.

Yeah that well known race, the English.

Reply 17

nearlyheadlessian

15

Duckzilla

I think this is ridiculous. As said in the article, the majority of Scottish students would kick up a fuss if Oxbridge said they gave more weighting to students from the east or south-east of England. It is discrimination and shouldn't be allowed to continue.

But Oxbridge does give an advantage to students from England... Scots generally can't get an offer from Oxbridge with their Highers and are often expected to achieve more highly than their English counterparts at Advanced Higher in order to get in.

Reply 18

Jelkin

17

Duckzilla

I think this is ridiculous. As said in the article, the majority of Scottish students would kick up a fuss if Oxbridge said they gave more weighting to students from the east or south-east of England. It is discrimination and shouldn't be allowed to continue.

Agreed.

I naively applied to Edinburgh as a safety choice, because in the prospectus they only asked for BBB :p:

I don't think I would have gone anyway though.

Reply 19

TheOneWho

12

Duckzilla

I think this is ridiculous. As said in the article, the majority of Scottish students would kick up a fuss if Oxbridge said they gave more weighting to students from the east or south-east of England. It is discrimination and shouldn't be allowed to continue.

Well, the Scottish education already disadvantages Scots from going to university in England, especially those coming from state schools. That's probably why Scotland has a long history of local students going to the local university, and if you combine that with the crap financial support given then for many it's a necessity.

Anti-English bias at Edinburgh University

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