They never went to Oxford or Cambridge — now they run two colleges there. Engines of social mobility at two of the world’s best universities

Neither of them ever studied at Oxford or Cambridge. Now they each run a college there.

In this milestone 400th episode, Alberto sits down with Professor Beth Breeze, Principal of Harris Manchester College, Oxford, and Girish Menon, President of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, to find out how their two colleges have become genuine engines of social mobility inside Oxbridge — as Brits refer to Oxford and Cambridge — institutions many people still assume were only ever built to welcome one particular kind of applicant.

• How does one Cambridge college end up with one of the highest proportions of state-school students in the university’s history, without lowering its entry grades?
• What happens to a bright student who’s told, after a single open day, that he should probably just “settle” for somewhere closer to home?
• Why did it take a teacher noticing “a spark” — not a family connection — to get one student through the gates at all?
• What’s actually covered, and what isn’t, once a scholarship pays for tuition but a student still needs a bike, a set of academic robes, or rent?
• Can two heads of college who never earned an Oxford or Cambridge degree themselves see something the system’s own insiders can’t?

Press play to hear exactly how two unlikely college heads are rewriting who gets to belong at two of the world’s best universities.

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