Culture

Oxbridge bias at the BBC?

December 09, 2008
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The most "viewed" story on the Guardian's media website at the moment is: how Oxbridge biased is the BBC? The answer, according to the Guardian is: Not at all. Over the past 2 years 364 out of 7,401 successful applicants to the BBC have been Oxbridge graduates. That is a mere 5%. So much for that.

However, this isn't quite the full story. If we look at director generals of the BBC since the war, 7 out of 11 (including Mark Thompson) have been Oxbridge graduates, which is nearer 63 per cent. How about chairmen of the BBC and of the BBC Trust? 11 out of 16, since 1945, were Oxbridge educated. Again, over 60 per cent. And how about channel controllers? Three out of sixteen controllers of BBC1 were educated at Oxbridge (less than 20 per cent) and five out of twelve controllers of BBC2 (more than 40 per cent).

So, total intake in the past two years: 5 per cent. Channel controllers since the 1960s: 20-40 per cent, and director general or chairman of the BBC, 60 per cent. One unavoidable conclusion would be that the higher up the BBC you are the more likely you are to have been at Oxford or Cambridge.

A second conclusion, which tells a rather different story, is that the 1960s and 1970s were the heyday of the Oxbridge elite and that the Oxbridge influence has declined in recent years. One of the last three DG's was Oxbridge, but neither of the last two chairmen of the BBC or BBC Trust were at Oxbridge and neither of the main channel controllers were.