Issue XXXII: Education in Britain

I’ve got a gig writing for the London School of Economics’s student newspaper, the Beaver.  Last week the opinion section (aka Comment) ran four pieces on whether LSE takes too many students from private schools.  Only 7% of British students go to private schools, but they account for over 40% of LSE students.  Is this elitism, discrimination, or just a statement of how bad state schools are?  These are three opinions (1, 2, and 3) .

Apparently in Britain, all universities are public with tuition capped at £3,225 per year.  That means Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, Imperial, and any other university you can think of in Britain costs less than the University of Texas at Austin currently.  Oxford sniffles that it should go private and be like Harvard and charge $30,000-$40,000 a year and wiggle out of admitting state school students like the Government wants them too.   As the token American writer, I warn Britain what private university education really means and obscene social inequalities that result from it.

In other news:

• The London School of Economics fell in the World Rankings that the Times of London does every year.  Boo hoo.
• A Gazan trapped by Israel’s siege is unable to attend LSE after Israel destroys his home.  A campaign by students guilted the administrators into offering him a full scholarship to make up for his losses.  Really brings the Palestinian issue home, doesn’t it?

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