I’m a bit wary of league tables in education for the obvious reason than the wealthy always do better than the poor and you could probably change the order quite a bit if you foregrounded the level of inclusion based on the postcodes of disadvantage.
However, remembering Talking-up Scotland’s purpose and the greater cause, it’s worth noting this success.
Needless to say the media coverage in a very unequal society like the UK has focused on St Andrews triumph and missed the performance of 5 Scots universities making the top 20, more than twice the number had all things been equal for our population.
It’s probably even better than that with 4 in the top 14 – 8% of the population and nearly 30% of the top universities!
It’s bad, very bad for Labour Wales with none in the top 10 or 20. 4.6% of the population and 0% of the top universities.
It’s been a while since we’ve had the 8% meme here.
Here’s a reminder:
Return of the Meme! 8% of the population but 100% of the aluminium smelters
8% of the population but 62% of the fish landings: How will we survive?
Scotland: 8% of the population but more than 13% of the exports and soaring!
Why Scotland has 8% of the population but 0% of the UK’s worst places for child poverty
8% of the people 20% of the space sector jobs
8% of the population and 34% of the natural resources
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I can imagine BBC Scotland having a phone-in about this with the question, “Is The relatively high rating of Scottish Universities based on the quality English and overseas students?”
In the framing, it would be stated that St Andrews and Edinburgh have high proportions of students from England, Glasgow has substantial numbers of Chinese students, Strathclyde has large numbers from Singapore, Malaysia, India with the assertion that Scots do not actually contribute much to the universities’ successes. The programme would then have vox pops from academics – all English, and overseas students, with smooth accents.
I recall from my earlier life as a head teacher in a secondary school attending a meeting at the Scottish Education Department about access to tertiary education. As we spoke of qualifications, mainly Higher Grades and Advanced Higher Grades, one of the university representatives interjected with a strong note of scepticism and contempt, “But these are Scottish qualifications, my colleagues and I passed A levels, so we know what their standard. We simply don’t know what Scottish qualifications entail.”
After an embarrassed silence, some said, “We are in Scotland, you know, and Scottish Schools present students for Higher Grades”. To which, with complete self-unawareness, the academic said, “Well, they are not doing their best by their students, are they?
This was pre-devolution and it was towards the end of the Major Government and the Education Minister at the Scottish Office, who was present, and had been at a local authority secondary school, said, to the audience in general, but it was clear to whom it was directed, “I am having lunch with the Chancellor of St Andrews later this week. I am sure he recognises the value of Highers.”
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I get the warped framing on ethnic or national origin since the individuals using such framing are quite likely warped themselves.
Fortunately, as far as I can tell from the data above ethnicity or national origin isn’t included though perhaps it should since it may be useful in assessing how foreign students view our universities, though I’m sure this may be dealt with as a separate issue. We do seem to attract a large number of foreign students.
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and nae a bad fitba an a’ , yeah, c’mon Scotland.
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