Sir Martin Harris on widening gulf in access to top universities
Sir Martin Harris, Trustee of both the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust and Cambridge Overseas Trust, has spoken publicly on the limited success of top universities in the UK in widening their intake to include more students from poorer backgrounds.
Sir Martin is Chair of the Office for Fair Access, which this week published its report ‘What more can be done to widen access to highly selective universities?’, commissioned by the UK Government in November 2009 to inform the Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance. Sir Martin says it is both socially unacceptable and economically wasteful that too few talented people from disadvantaged backgrounds realise their full potential. The report is available online.
The Cambridge Commonwealth Trust and Cambridge Overseas Trust are seeking further to improve access to Cambridge for overseas students from disadantaged backgrounds, both by increasing the number of full-cost scholarships availalble, and by developing new partnerships with overseas governments and foundations who share our commitment to widening access for talented students from all social and economic backgrounds.