Churchill Master supports ditching ‘intimidating’ Cambridge interviews

Dame Athene Donald said the Cambridge interview process as a barrier to wider access to the University

Dame Athene Donald said she thinks interviewers are 'intimidating to those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds'Louis Ashworth

by Bella Shorrock

This article is 4 years old

Friday May 27 2022, 11:20am

Dame Athene Donald, the Master of Churchill College, has said she would like to scrap “intimidating” Cambridge interviews to widen access to students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Speaking to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee last week (18/5), Donald said, “To be honest, and I know my colleagues in Cambridge don’t like this, we would do away with the interview.

“We think it is intimidating to those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, we think it is much easier if you’ve been to a school that has got a track record of sending people to Oxbridge, those people will be better prepared.”

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Dame Athene said that she was not planning any immediate action on the matter, adding that “It is not a view that my colleagues in Cambridge are willing to accept.”

She acknowledged that efforts had been made to make the interview “less of an interrogation”, but added that there was still more to be done, and that online interviews during the pandemic had opened up possibilities for a less daunting interview process.

Dame Athene’s comments come less than a month after Vice-Chancellor Stephen Toope pledged to boost the University’s state school intake.

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