Oxbridge MAs: an unfair head start in the graduate rat-race

Labour MP Chris Leslie has been campaigning to end Oxford and Cambridge’s right to award all students an honorary MA three years after they graduate. For a small fee, Cambridge and Oxford students can convert their BA to an MA (Cantab.) or MA (Oxon.).


Initially, this campaign annoyed me. I did my undergrad degree at Cambridge, and I’m looking forward to heading back there in 2013 for a repeat of the bizarre graduation ceremony I took part in 18 months ago.


I was annoyed with Leslie because I could not see the point. Aren’t there more important problems at Oxbridge, like the dearth of black students or the private school bias? I can’t help feeling that a country that tolerates Guantanamo Bay and allows James May’s face to appear on the side of buses has bigger problems.


Leslie points to a survey of employers which found 62% didn’t know the difference between a real MA and the automatically awarded Oxbridge MA. Even if you ignore the obvious flaws in such a survey, I still find it hard to blame Oxford and Cambridge for HR departments’ inability to decipher the basics of a CV.


But, the more I thought about it, the harder I found it to justify this particular privilege. Even if it doesn’t indicate anything other than a clean criminal record (you need one to upgrade your degree), the ‘free’ MA is a pointless anachronism.


Do Oxford and Cambridge really need to rely on tradition to distinguish themselves from other universities? If the two Universities want to hold on to their special status in a competitive education market, they should earn it on merit, not by recourse to ancient customs. 


It is top quality research, one on one teaching and world-class teaching staff that make Oxbridge special – they should be encouraged to preserve those strengths in competitive conditions.


Oxbridge graduates often justify their special status by pointing to the additional work they have to do at University. But there are people at other Universities who worked far harder than I ever could have at Cambridge.  


Students at Oxford and Cambridge massively benefit from the quality of education they receive. They don’t need any extra prizes.


London Evening Standard, by Jack Rivlin - 31st October 2011