The wealth gap inside a single university
Oxford college endowments per student range from about £1.23 million at Magdalen — and around £53.7 million per student at All Souls, which has almost none — down to £2,400 at Green Templeton. Colleges fund hardship grants, book allowances and travel awards from those endowments, so which college you are allocated determines what support exists. The class divide at university covers the rest.
Universities create a route for students barred by the visa brake
A group of UK universities has committed places through a new scholarship offering alternative pathways to postgraduate study for students affected by the visa restriction on four nationalities. It is the first constructive response to a policy that has run through this year — a workaround rather than a solution, but a real one for the students it reaches.
Measuring universities by the opportunity they create
HEPI argues opportunity should replace prestige as the measure of a university’s success — a position several vice-chancellors have taken this year, and one that would reorder every league table published this summer. The practical version for an applicant is the social mobility index rather than the QS rankings.