Oxford University - why is it like a box of chocolates?

To quote Forrest Gump: “Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re gonna get.” Research published in the Oxford Student hints that Oxford University bears a closer resemblance to a box of chocolates than you might originally think.  But why, and what should be done about it?

Imagine Oxford as very expensive chocolate box.  Each college would be contained within the box. They should all be ‘champagne truffles’, so whichever college you chose, you would have the majority of your tutorials given by senior academics.  In effect, higher education’s ‘champagne truffle’ equivalent.

But variety in a chocolate box can be a good thing.  Imagine not just ‘champagne truffles’, but ‘Chocolat Riche’ and ‘Sicilian Lemon Mousse’.  All excellent; all providing reasonable expectations of a taste sensation.  The same with colleges where their different characters can add value to the University.  This though assumes that all colleges meet reasonable expectations about the numbers of tutorials provided by senior academics.

Finally, imagine an occasional Cadbury’s Heroes or Mars Celebrations slipped into your very expensive chocolate box.  Admittedly, still tasty (I’m personally a large fan of Malteasers).  But not what you expect from an expensive chocolate box.  Applied to Oxford University, you don’t expect a considerable bulk of your tutorials to be provided by graduates.

It is therefore worrying that there is so much variance between colleges.  There is nothing wrong with graduate tutors: many are fantastic teachers at the cutting edge of current research.  But students apply to Oxford University and graduate from Oxford University.  They are entitled to a reasonable expectation that whatever their college, they will receive the same excellent standard of education from the collegiate University. The research suggests that this isn’t always the case.

There are a number of colleges that buck this general trend of bigger endowment equals more contact with senior academics.  This is an important point because it suggests you don’t need a big budget to afford a ‘champagne truffle’.  I hope that these ‘champagne’ colleges will begin sharing their recipes for success.