Mike Nicholson, the head of Oxford admissions, has sparked controversy this week by claiming that boys are more successful in exams than girls.
He holds that the key reason for this is that boys are more prone to taking risks, commenting, “We have generally seen male students tend to be much more prepared to take risks, which is why they do well in exams.”
According to Nicholson, this is a particular issue when time is of the essence. He noted that “generally, female students are risk-averse, and will tend to take longer to think about an answer. If it’s a multiple-choice question, male students will generally go with their gut feeling. Girls will try and reason it out. Obviously, if you are using timed multiple-choice assessments, that has a bearing on the likelihood of the female students even finishing the section, when the boys have whizzed through it.”
This is particularly relevant to a number of Oxford admissions tests, such as the TSA, which use multiple choice questions to select applicants.
Sarah Pine, OUSU Vice President for Women, felt that these comments were unjustified and was disappointed that Nicholson was using “gender stereotypes rather than a more mature approach in understanding results in admissions tests”. She told Cherwell that “The comments by Mr Nicholson rely on unfair generalisations, which, once a student gets to Oxford, are disproved. The work that OUSU has done with the university’s Education Committee has completely disproved ‘risk-aversion’ as an explanation of discrepancies in exam attainment at finals, so there needs to be much more evidence before it is invoked at the level of admissions.”
She continued: “What is particularly sad is that this thinking doesn’t actually tackle socially enforced gender inequality, because differences are presented as innate. This means that boys’ overachievement in admissions tests like the TSA isn’t questioned. It is instead accepted as a problem with women rather than a problem with the test.”
In his interview with the Telegraph, Nicholson also attacked the government’s recent education policy, in particular the Education Secretary Michael Gove’s plans to scrap As-Levels. He commented that “it is really helpful for many students to have a checkpoint part way through their studies to get a handle on how well they are doing” and that scrapping As-Levels might lead to “a tendency to take their foot off the gas”.
He also highlighted the work done by Oxford admissions in advance of A-Levels, ensuring that Oxford candidates’ results day is, in most cases, a more stress free occasion. He commented “We put so much of our effort into selecting students when they first apply, we don’t need to do an awful lot at this end of the process.”He also made it clear that Oxford’s stance towards adjustment was unbending, commenting ““Our main aim at this point is to stop people getting in touch with us if they want to come here through adjustment. We don’t have any vacancies.”
Nicholson was keen to stress, however, that the sole aim of Oxford admissions was to ensure that the brightest students, regardless of gender, class or any other factors, were awarded places at Oxford. He commented “We are looking for the best students we can find. It is not in our interests to take students on the basis of anything other than their potential to do incredibly well at Oxford.
That is not restricted to a particular school type, or social class or ethnicity or background or whether they are from the North or the South. Our entire reputation as a world class university depends on getting the best and the brightest we can.”
