Bribing Your Way Into School

America was shaken recently by the revelation that several high profile business people or showbusiness personalities had allegedly made payments so that their sons and daughters could access places at top colleges such as Yale or Harvard

Operation Varsity Blues, as the FBI investigation was called, took place over a number of years and uncovered two primary methods by which places were fraudulently obtained: cheating on college admissions tests and fabricating achievements by the applicants, particularly in the area of elite sports. The details are shocking in several ways. Most obviously, the shamelessness with which the cheating was carried out is breath-taking. Impostors took tests on behalf of the applicants and achieved scores far beyond the candidates’ abilities. Claims about the sporting abilities of others were audacious in their creativity, making in some cases grand claims about people who had never even played the sport.

The high-profile names attached to the scandal also ensure some wild headlines in the tabloid press. But in many ways, what is most shocking is the sums of money exchanged in order to buy those places; up to half a million dollars was donated to the bogus charity set up to launder the funds through to those behind the operation. It was an instructive reminder of the importance of the Ivy League on a CV to progress in corporate America. And that, ultimately, was what shook American society hardest. Despite their pride in its meritocratic nature, their belief in the American Dream, fundamentally it illustrated that the cheque book still provided the necessary oil to grease the gears through which the most successful in its society moved.

It is all too easy to look across the Atlantic from our position of smugness and reassure ourselves that of course it couldn’t happen here. And in many ways of course it couldn’t; our university admission system is much more transparent and straightforward. The UCAS system ensures a common application form for all of the universities ensuring the criteria are consistent; offers are made on the basis of A Level results rather than specific university exams and these of course are administered under strict conditions by schools rather than anonymous SAT centres; universities are monitored both internally and externally to ensure the robustness and fairness of their procedures for admissions.

However, whilst our universities haven’t suffered anything like the admissions scandal in the US, there is still a nagging problem of access to the top universities from all sections of society. The Sutton Trust has for a number of years published some challenging statistics on both university access and exam results by both school type and geographical region. Briefly put, the results are probably what you would expect; the starkness of the differential however may surprise. A flavour of the situation is given by the statistic that a certain eight schools send as many pupils to Oxbridge as almost three thousand others put together. It’s not just about schooling however; almost one in four pupils at school have received some form of private tuition. So, in the UK, money buying access to opportunity is not an unknown phenomenon either.

As the Head of an independent school, some would argue I was part of the problem. I certainly can’t deny and indeed I would endorse the fact that many parents choose to educate their children privately because they believe their chances of gaining a place at a top university are higher. But I also believe we are part of the solution. Independent schools across the country work in partnership both their state school neighbours, working with pupils to help prepare them for Oxbridge and other elite institutions. We also offer life-changing bursaries for pupils who can use us as a springboard for future success. We are charities and at our heart is a desire to improve the lot of all young people, irrespective of their backgrounds.