Talk:Campaign for Mainstream Universities

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[edit] Mainstream?

It would be interesting to see an explanation of the term "Mainstream" and some criticism (in the sense of evaluation, comment, etc) of it. In my opinion the University of Oxford, as the UK's oldest university, and Oxbridge, for around 800 years the only universities in England, defines what is "mainstream" in British (or certainly English) higher education. Likewise the four original Scottish universities, followed by the University of Durham, which seems to be modelled on Oxbridge. Modern was an accurate description of these universities. They are not mainstream, even if they do represent perhaps the majority of British students and staff. It's rather like that silly debate about whether Oxford, Cambridge, (and Dublin) ought to be allowed to continue to award their MAs. Since Oxford, followed by Cambridge, invented the British university degree system they ought to go on doing whatever they like. I do accept that the MA in its present state dates only from 1807 and that London has been seen as having reverted to the earlier practice, but it did that after 1807. These things evolve. The point is that the new universities (i.e. the ones founded in the 19th/20th centuries) seem to think that Oxford, Cambridge, (and to an extent Dublin and the four original Scottish universities) are something other than the mainstream. Rather, they are the model on which all subsequent universities ought to have been founded. Oxford and Cambridge are without any doubt the best universities in the UK. The others could benefit from imitating them - it might improve their standards. Wouldn't Thames Valley like to be at the top of the THES world university league table, rubbing shoulders with Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and Cambridge?--Oxonian2006 11:43, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm. As universities have expanded, they have taken in more of the mainstream population at large. technical terms: 'New Universities' are now considered to be the post-1992 universities, the new universities you are talking about are now called redbricks, surely? Oxford and Cambridge are not mainstream because they have an elite standard, therefore most people tend not to go to Oxbridge, indeed, it may be that more people go to post-1992 universities than pre-1992 ones, therefore the mainstream is referring to the majority. Post 1992 unis are more 'mainstream' because they have done good work in helping those from a non university mainstream background pursue some higher study. Getting back to the article though, I'm not sure how your dislike of the term mainstream affects the article. The CMU have used the ter in their name, end of story. Magic Pickle 15:50, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] No content

This article fails to explain in any way what the organisation is about or what their aims are. I'm therefore tagging it as a stub since at the moment it's little more than a list. --kingboyk 12:21, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

any chance of a web link to the organisation's web site? Magic Pickle 19:32, 18 July 2006 (UTC)