I was a little stunned this week to read suggestions from academics that Oxford and Cambridge interviews could move online permanently.
The nerve-wracking grillings have been conducted online for two years now, thanks to Covid, and I’m sure many will have preferred it that way.
From the point of view of the staff, there are no bodies on campus, demanding to be fed and housed. Real life three-dimensional people, as most organisations have learnt during the Covid crisis, can be an inconvenience.
For 17-year-olds, the online interview is just a quick toggle away from Instagram or YouTube, and any applicants under duress to apply from their parents are minimally inconvenienced.
‘Real life three-dimensional people can be an inconvenience.’
Barring issues around the “digital divide”, online interviews do seem fairer, too: most Zoom chats cut out some of the “noise’ for the interviewer: unconscious bias over trouser-choice, for example, will be eliminated entirely.
You might argue that it would be even fairer to reduce the interview to a phone call, forcing staff to judge candidates on the content of their utterances alone. To cut out accent bias, you could reduce the interview to a Whatsapp message exchange – ideal in this busy world.
But despite all these obvious advantages, rather like those searingly efficient school “virtual parents evenings”, I’m predicting any permanent move to online-only Oxbridge interviews will be a divisive issue.
For many, the process of travelling to the colleges, going through the interview grinder and glimpsing life there is an important rite of passage. For every applicant who finds the experience off-putting and runs away sobbing into the arms of Birmingham and Manchester, there is another who is utterly inspired by it.
Don’t assume that because someone grew up on a council estate that they cannot be thrilled by historic buildings and academically-enthused staff. For some, the experience of attending the interview, meeting new people with the same level of intellectual curiosity (perhaps for the first time) will be what makes them want to attend.
“For every applicant who finds the experience off-putting, there is another who is inspired by it.”
I know travelling around the country to undergo an academic interview is an expensive and arduous experience, but surely this is the point? Some young people need stuff like this to prepare them for life. Disadvantaged teenagers who already face financial and other challenges shouldn’t miss out and can be supported to attend too (as they have been in the past).
While the interview itself may be traumatic for some, inviting candidates to the college to be interviewed can also be a way of showing them that they are valued. After all, Oxbridge is nothing without the constant stream of young undergraduates percolating up from below.
And I’m not sure online interviews do that.