Comments | cassandre: Oxford is horrible oh noez!

cassandre

Oxford is horrible oh noez!

Oct 02, 2008 16:20

The secret is finally out: The University of Oxford is a horrible place where all the people are miserable. So says Tanya Gold in today's G2 ( Read more... )

Comments 4

chickenfeet2003 October 2 2008, 15:59:08 UTC

Some people would have a horrible time anywhere.

smellingbottle October 2 2008, 17:58:22 UTC

It's an irritating article. As a prole who was the first of my family to go to secondary secondary school, and who stumbled into an equally Old Boys Arf Arf Wearing my Great-grandfather the Eighth Duke's Dinner Jacket Oxford college, I could not feel more strongly about university fees and the form of social engineering which currently operates (let's not forget) at Oxford. But, for God's sake, make an argument for the correction of the situation, Tanya G., rather than pen this kind of self-indulgent nonsense which has no point other than that it's supposed to make us feel all warm and glowy and vindicated that An Insider Also Thinks Oxford's Shit. Bad writing and lazy stereotypes. Everyone is miserable at university, intermittently or permanently - I remember sobbing in the toilets in the Rad Cam basement, but that's not an argument for the abolition of the university - in fact, the one (possible) suicide I knew of at my college was that of a triple-barreled youth who was somewhere (distantly) in line to the throne ( ... )

white_hart October 2 2008, 19:50:03 UTC

I was deeply unimpressed by that article. I think that widening access is a huge issue for Oxford, and I absolutely disagree with Patten. I also suspect that there may be a lot of truth in her assertion that 'we weren't learning, we were cramming', but that may be just as true of most other universities. However, like you I'm not at all convinced by Gold's argument that Oxford is an awful place because she had a bad time there; I know an awful lot of people who had such a wonderful time there they won't hear anything against it (which was difficult when I was having a bad time settling into my job), and I'm sure the truth is somewhere between the two. And I would certainly take her condemnation of her privileged background far more seriously if she wasn't so obviously benefitting from it now!

mrkgnao October 3 2008, 08:36:51 UTC

Oh dear, what an offensive article. I think it does have some relatively worthwhile points buried deep in there but sadly they are lost in the self-indulgence and the self-justification ( ... )