Posts
 |
| The Guardian, 12 October 2017. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/oct/12/oxford-university-interview-questions-sample-candidates |
"Candidates asked to consider the purpose of law and the morality of air travel in latest batch of sample interview material" inform Sally Weale, education correspondent for the Guardian.
 |
| Oxford students pass the Radcliffe Camera on their way to matriculation. Photo: Pete Lusabia/Alamy |
Efforts by Oxford University to elucidate its interview process and soothe applicants’ nerves got under way this week with the annual release of sample questions and – crucially – the answers to them.
Law candidates invited to interview could find themselves being asked: “Should it be illegal to run a red light in the middle of the night on an empty road?” Those applying to study modern languages might be asked: “What do we lose if we only read a foreign work of literature in translation?”
Students of medicine, meanwhile, could be challenged to put the following countries – Bangladesh, Japan, South Africa, UK – in order by their crude mortality rate, and philosophy candidates might be asked to reflect on individual responsibility and the morality of air travel.
As this year’s intake begins to settle in, including campaigner and Nobel prize winner Malala Yousafzai who attended her first lectures at Oxford this week, the next round of applications is about to begin with the Oxbridge deadline on 15 October.
Candidates who successfully clear the first hurdle with their written application will be invited to interview in December. At Oxford just over half of all applicants will be interviewed, compared with 75% at Cambridge.
Students are encouraged to regard the interview as a short conversation tutorial about their subject. On average, it takes around 20 minutes; shortlisted students will have at least two interviews, with two different sets of interviewers, often in more than one college.
Dr Samina Khan, director of admissions and outreach at Oxford, said as well as sample questions, candidates could prepare by looking at mock interviews online, as well as video diaries by admissions tutors during the interview process...
The sample question for PPE (philosophy, politics and economics) candidates reads: “‘I agree that air transport contributes to harmful climate change. But whether or not I make a given plane journey, the plane will fly anyway. So there is no moral reason for me to not travel by plane.’ Is this a convincing argument?”
They are not being tested on their knowledge of philosophy, explained Cécile Fabre, professor at All Souls College, but on their ability to think critically about the issue of individuals’ responsibility for harmful collective action.
“Some candidates might say that the argument is a good one: given that what I do makes no difference, I have no moral reason not to do it. At this point, I would want to know what they consider a moral reason to be (as distinct from or similar to, for example, a practical or prudential reason).
Read more...
Source: The Guardian
