College Entry the Other Side
By A HEADMASTER We have recently interviewed Mr. John Smith and have offered him employment in the capacity of — subject to a satisfactory headmaster's re- port. We should be much obliged if you would give us in confidence your candid opinion of his integrity, industry and suitability for employment in the above=mentioned capacity. A stamped ad- dressed envelope is enclosed for your reply.'
OLLEGE tutors do not enclose stamped ad- %b....dressed envelopes; but in all other respects their conduct is superior to that of the writer of the above letter, which is by no means untypical of the industrial and commercial world. It is in- conceivable that a college should put a headmaster in such an invidious position. Perhaps the most noteworthy fcature of the entertaining remarks of a Cambridge tutor about 'College Entry' some .veeks ago in the Spectator was his aware- ness of the headmaster's bogey of 'increasingly angry parents in the background.' As he pointed out, the college interview is the schoolmaster's alibi. The knowledge, carefully instilled by any headmaster of normal prudence into the poten- tially outraged parent long before he has had any opportunity of feeling outraged, that the number of places available at Oxford and Cambridge is a mere fraction of the total number of suitable applicants, is a protection against any but unreasonable parents. But there are unreasonable parents, who are ready to blame anyone but them- selves or their offspring for his rejection—the school for its failure to develop or sufficiently recommend his talents, the college for its snob- bery in preferring boys from more socially exalted schools or alternatively its inverted snob- bery in preferring them from less exalted schools. Against such the college interview is a real pro- tection for the schoolmaster. Wrath must be vented. How much better that it should be vented Upon a college with which ex hypotliesi the jarent's relations are at an end ,than upon the gchooI with which they are likely to continue for some months at least!
So however irritated schoolmasters may be by the policy or practice of certain colleges in this Matter of entries, they will, if they are just, be grateful to them for this protection. And there is Much else on the credit side. The colleges are, I believe, scrupulously honest. rot. them 'con- fidential' really does mean `confidential,' and a headmaster can be certain that a college tutor will not merely refrain from quoting ierbalim from a testimonial to a candidate—this can cer- tainly not be said of the members of all local education authorities—but will also be careful to avoid giving him the least hint of its contents. They are extremely painstaking; they act in the full realisation that they dispose of a commodity which has a high scarcity value as well as an intrinsic one, and they appear most commendably anxious that it should be awarded only to those who will make good use of it. And they discharge this great responsibility with a remarkable degree of courtesy; many applications are, in the circum- stances of the present day, little better than frivo- lous, but I personally have never known one rejected inconsiderately or without a patently genuine expression of regret.
None the less the question arises, Does the present system, or lack of system, result in the right boys reaching the universities? The colleges can produce good arguments with which to main- tain that they do. Academic standards have risen, but not at the cost of turning the universities into societies of bookworms; by demanding minimum intellectual standards much higher than those of the Twenties and Thirties but retaining for their Commoners a selection system based largely on non-academic grounds the colleges have pre- served much of the atmosphere of the ancient universities in the midst of a fiercely competitive world. And they have managed to do so without raising doubts about their integrity in the minds of unprejudiced observer.% But granted that the system produces good undergraduates and that it is administered with absolute honesty, doubts remain in the minds of those concerned with the future of the dis- appointed candidate and the feelings of his out- raged parent. Is it as efficient as it could be? Are no candidates rejected who are worthier than some of those accepted? I do not think that such claims could be seriously maintained. Any schoolmaster who has to deal with university entrance on any considerable scale knows how large a part is played by mere luck. It has admittedly little effect on the choice of candidates by colleges; it affects enormously the choice of colleges by candidates. It is impossible for even the most knowing of headmasters (and some of us are conscious of being far less knowing than others) to grasp all the relevant facts, to know that Judas has an excessive number of would-be engineers clamouring for places, while Lazarus could do with a few more; that Stylites reserves nearly all its places for candidates taking the scholarship examination, whereas St. Matthew's prefers to select on promise without examination at the age of fifteen and a half; that Dorchester's list has been depleted by an unexpected crop of scholarship successes by its prospective members at other colleges, or that Mr. Sangrail, the new tutor of Hilary, has discovered a miscalculation of his predecessor's which gives him fifteen unexpected vacancies to play with.
'I have written to every college at Oxford and Cambridge and given your name as a reference.' Not many parents go as far as this. It would be devastating if they did; but it might have the good effect of encouraging the colleges as a whole to adopt a more rational and less time-wasting policy. They have for many years formed them- selves into groups for the 'purpose of awarding scholarships and exhibitions, and a candidate for an open award has been able to enter for several colleges simultaneously, stating his order of preference; to an outsider at any rate they appear to have been able to do this without in the least compromising their independence. Now that university places are in the same sense as scholar- ships and exhibitions, though academically on a lower level, competitive, is it not- time that the colleges adopted the same policy for the award of these? The saving of labour would be immense. Some good candidates who are at present unlucky would get a fairer chance, and those who were rejected would have the satisfaction of knowing that they had been considered by a number of colleges, and for a sense of grievance, which is always demoralising, could substitute what may be galling but may also be salutary, a sense of their own inadequacy.. The colleges could feel satisfied that they were getting not merely good candidates but the best available. And school- masters whose responsibility in the matter of recommending candidates to colleges on grounds of character and intellect is already heavy enough would be freed from the additional and perilous responsibility of recommending colleges to can- didates on grounds of expediency.
One further point is not likely to be openly conceded by the dons, though it may well be privately appreciated. It can, I think, be presumed that most colleges keep confidential lists in which headmasters are rated according to their relia- bility in writing testimonials. The list of any single college is bound to be scrappy and, although no doubt exceedingly interesting (which of us would not give much for a sight of it?) itself, not very reliable. A grouping of colleges for entry purposes would result in the pooling of the relevant information, and the lists would become more comprehensive, more reliable, and for those privi- leged to read them even more fascinating. What must be a prolific source of error would be mini- mised. The entry of the genuine swans is probably assured under any system; but only by some such method as this 'can it be secured that the remain- ing places shall be reserved for the most swan- like of the geese.
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