Saturday, March 20, 2010

English Heademaster claims 'anti English' bias operates at Edinburgh Uni, but real discrimination is practiced by English people at Glasgow Uni















Dear All

Edinburgh University has been accused of being “anti-English”.

The reason for this ridiculous statement is because they have adopted a policy of giving weighting to applicants from neighbouring Scottish schools.

Richard Cairns, headmaster of fee-paying Brighton College, said this discriminated against the rest of England, particularly the south.

Straight this begs the question why is he saying only England?

Rather than consider the matter properly, he wants to play the race card with no evidence to back up his opinion.

His logic is Edinburgh University wants to help local Scots ergo they must be racist!

A spokesman for the University said other institutions operated similar policies to attract talented local students, both north and south of the Border.

This rather blows apart Richard Cairns and the big chip sitting on his shoulder!

The reason for his unhappiness may possibly lie in the fact that 25 of the 27 applications made by Brighton College students to Edinburgh University were turned down.

If they were turned down then it must have been purely down on the basis of grades given the record number of English students enrolled at the University.

Richard Cairns, Brighton College headmaster said;

“Edinburgh has opted to turn in on itself, and in a manner that strikes me as potentially both illegal and racist.

Given the high number of English people employed as teaching staff in Scottish Universities this is another aspect of his claim which doesn’t stand up.

He added;

“Yet for a Scottish university to act in this narrow-minded manner is somehow acceptable to the authorities of Edinburgh University.”

I wonder if Cairns other than running his mouth had actually researched who is working in the higher education sector of Scotland.

The reason for Edinburgh’s policy is to encourage students from the local area to apply.

The University said;

“We want to make sure our local applicants are not prevented from studying their chosen subject because of the pressure on popular subject areas. For certain degree programmes we will give additional weighting to applications from schools in the local area, defined as Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian, West Lothian, Scottish Borders, Fife, Falkirk and Clackmannanshire.”
They also made the pertinent point that 38% of English applicants received an offer to study at the university.

They added;

“The percentage of English entrants has risen year-on-year over the past few years and, in 2009, 41% of UK entrants were from England”.

Richard Cairns has made himself look rather a fool, shouting racism and illegality where there is clearly none.

If he wants a discussion maybe he could explain why Englishman and human rights abuser, John Richard Coggins, Pro Vice-Principal of Glasgow University discriminated against a working class Scot?

Could Cairns explain why when Coggins was handed and signed for evidence of staff criminal fraud he refused to submit it during a hearing?

The evidence presented to him can be found here, human rights abuser John Richard Coggins surpressed it.

Cairns is correct in one sense there is discrimination practiced in Scottish higher education, by English people.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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