‘Crossing your legs better your Oxbridge chances’

Out-dated private schools are teaching women how to sit demurely to improve their chances at an Oxbridge interview.

Professor David Bainbridge explained that female students were being told how to present their bodies modestly. Men, on the other hand, were still allowed to “sprawl” and “slob”.

Misguided schools believed that it would make a different to the women’s entry chances.

Speaking at Oxford Literary Festival he said: “I’m an admissions tutor at a Cambridge college and I know from talking to some of my students that they are told whether to cross their legs, or cross their legs at the ankle, or how they should sit.

“As if that’s going to affect what I think of their abilities in literary criticism or organic chemistry. But I know they’re told this.

and what?

He also added to the Daily Telegraph: “‘They’re supposed to be seen as compact. The whole thing about crossing their legs and what they should wear.”

According to last years Government figures, pupils from independent schools are five times more likely to win places at Oxbridge than their state equivalents.

Data from the Department for Education shows that one in 100 state school pupils go on to study at Oxbridge compared to one in 20 students from private schools.

Step back in time with this twisted interview advice.