A leading academic has questioned the Oxbridge interview process – and suggested that a blindfolded boy picking a random name might be fairer.
The admissions process for Oxford and Cambridge includes an interview with a reputation for questions which often have no right or wrong answer – as the aim is to get students to think for themselves.
But the questions, which have included ‘Here is a cactus, tell me about it’, have also led to accusations they favour candidates from more privileged backgrounds who have been coached to expect them.
Professor Miles Hewstone, a social psychology tutor at Oxford’s New College, has said more should be done to make the admissions process ‘as fair and comprehensive as possible’.
Writing in the Times Higher Education magazine, he suggests that the method used by the Coptic Church to choose a Pope could be preferable.
He says: ‘The Coptic Church recently selected its new Pope by getting a blindfolded boy to draw lots from a bowl containing the names of three highly selected candidates.
‘Odd as it may sound, there is an argument that this would also be the best way to make the final cut of Oxbridge applicants – the annual round of which is just coming to an end.’
He said that tutors receive extensive information on candidates, including exam results, predictions and teachers’ references.
But even with all the information available, he said, it is still not an accurate prediction of how a student will fare.
‘We don’t know how motivated they will be and how likely they are to deviate from the true path of learning when faced with the freedoms that greet young people away from home for the first time in their lives.’
He added: ‘If we find that interviews do not improve our decision-making, we should drop them, too.’
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