ivy league

(Warning: barefaced boasting alert - if you don't like boasters, the first part of this is probably not such a good post for you to read!)

For twelve months we didn't want to broadcast the news that we had a daughter trying for a place at one of the top two UK universities in case we pointlessly raised expectations or put a hex on proceedings.

Then when she achieved the grades she needed and was accepted, we didn't want to broadcast the news because it just seemed like outright boasting.

And now here we are partway into her second year and it suddenly hits me: if I don't make the most of the opportunity pretty soon it will be too late. University will be finished, she will be off into the real world, and I will have missed my chance to jump onto the table and share this wonderful and amazing news with the world.

So, here it is:

My daughter is a student at Cambridge University, one of the top universities in the world.

And not just any old student at one of the best universities in the world. In her first year exams she came 5th equal out of the 74 on her course, putting her in the top 10% of a group of students who might be expected to be among the brightest in the uk. Wow.

The strangest thing is that she was offered a place at Cambridge without having any of the extra-curricular points we had thought might be essential - she wasn't in a sports team, didn't play an instrument, wasn't one of the team of Head Students. It seems she was accepted solely because of her attitude to work and her exam performance. Perhaps government pressure on the top universities to open their doors to more students from non-privileged backgrounds is having some effect - even though most of my daughter's co-students have indeed come from fairly elite schools rather than their local comprehensives.


Thanks to the amazing education system in the uk my daughter's success has all been achieved without payment of a penny over and above our regular taxes. She attended the totally free and open-to-all local state schools, worked hard and achieved her grades. The government pays her university fees and a living allowance (subject to our household income not being above certain limits) and once her education is finished she is committed to repaying these loans out of her own income, at a reasonably affordable level, in each month that she earns more than a pre-set amount.

Currently there is no need in the uk to set up a college fund before you can hope to attend university. It's just down to you to repay the government loan out of future earnings, in the knowledge that those earnings will probably be enhanced with a decent degree behind you.

Socialism seems to get a pretty bad press these days, but it's hard to argue against it being a good way to run a decent and humane society. Let us support our citizens when they need it, and they will support us when their situation improves.

From each according to their ability, to each according to their need?