Wake Forest University, North Carolina
Like clockwork each year, when A-level result and university admission time comes round, the media goes hunting, hoping it will find the next Laura Spence. Spence was a well-qualified state school pupil, who in 2000 was rejected from Oxford, before being accepted by Harvard on a £65,000 scholarship. The brief cause celebre briefly brought the issue of elitism within the UK university sector to the forefront of media debate. Well-known class warrior Gordon Brown controversially weighed in to the fray, describing Oxford’s rejection as ‘an absolute scandal’. Of course, for the media to find something similar happening now Brown is Prime Minister would be another minor humiliation for the beleaguered incumbent at Number 10. On current form, however, I don’t think Mr Brown has anything much to worry about on this score.
On September 5th, The Times published a rather fact-light article speculating on the ability of US universities to attract British students with large bursaries. With it was published a case study designed to illustrate this alleged trend – but there is something about it that doesn’t quite work.
Tom Gibson, 18, from Wellington College in Crowthorne, Berkshire…
A great start to the tale of woe. Mr Gibson is paying at least a mere £20,422.50 (including an extra £82.50 per term for being a sixth-former) per year for his education. OK, carry on – tell me more about poor Master Gibson.
…has accepted an offer from Wake Forest, a university in North Carolina that focuses on the liberal arts. It charges $36,500 (£20,000) a year for tuition but more than half of (more…)
