I recently reported on a new college starting in Oxford claiming a Christian mission and ethos. As I explained last time, the college has in fact close ties with Douglas Wilson and theso called Federal Vision.
I thought it was worth taking more of a deep dive into the curriculum and the assessment process starting with the application process and entrance exam.
Students are expected to have read and understood a number of policy documents including a bursary policy and application form although the college currently is unable to offer bursaries. They are expected to complete an application form, provide two academic and one pastoral referees and submit to examples of recent academic work. The requirement for academic referees and submission of academic work is interesting because the FAQs also state that A-Levels are not required because some applicants will not have received formal qualifications. This raises questions about what is meant both in terms of academic references and academic work.
In response to another FAQ about how to put together a one page CV, we are told:
“Although there is plenty of available advice on the internet, our advice is that you tailor your CV to the Selden College audience- and be creative. Include details about yourself that you think will be important for us to know, including academic achievements and work experience”
That’s quite a vague and woolly response to what should be a straight forward and objective question. CVs as standard list academic qualifications and work experience. At aged 18, you wouldn’t expect a very full CV. However, the FAQ manages to turn this into something mysterious. What does it mean to “be creative”? And why should I need to be? What details would it be important for the college to know outside of standard CV responses and why? This leaves us still asking the question “Why is the college unable to answer a simple question and why have they chosen to appear awkward in their response to their own FAQs?”
Another FAQ is about what to submit as an example of academic work. The answer offered is:
“Any recent, graded, piece of work that best shows your academic ability. It should not be so short that no real information can be gleaned from it, nor so long as to test the patience of those reading it.”
Again, why is there such a need to respond so vaguely. Surely it would be straightforward enough to offer a word limit rather than to engage in a kind of pretentious guessing game. Lack of clarity about targets means that it is impossible to meet them. The College staff who have pu these answers together demonstrate a level of wooliness and muddle that falls far short of the kind of standards we are looking for when it comes to academic rigour.
Then there is the entrance exam. We are told that:
“The entrance exam will test your academic readiness for the course of study at Selden College and will include : language aptitude test (this will not test knowledge of a specific language, rather, the student’s ability to understand how language works); reading comprehension; reasoning capacity with regards to both ideas and ethics; and writing ability
The language test is fascinating. We are told that you won’t be tested on an actual language but rather
“the language aptitude test involves a made-up language and requires a student to translate and compose in that language based on the examples provided.” (https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/66e1a4cbc47f1aaafb4e944c/66ee8b597f8140e755efa6dc_Selden%20College%20Admissions%20Policy.pdf)
I don’t know if this is standard process or not for this kind of course but it seems to take quite a naïve view about language and how it works. Languages are not fixed and formal code to be cracked but either were or still are living languages that have developed, grown and evolved over time. That’s why for example, we are alert to differences between classical Greek, the koine Greem of NT times and modern Greek. I’d be cautious about talking about how languages work and reflect that different languages work differently.
So a language aptitude test like the MLAT might help assess aptitude to pick up things quickly, useful for intensive language training,be.g for missionaries or for military purposes and I understand it is used by Oxbridge for language courses. However, where the aim is to engage with languages to understand and grasp literature then it is more important to learn about how the language works. I speak as someone who probably doesn’t have the aptitude for intensive language training but thanks to patient teaching am able to engage with the Biblical cal texts in their original languages.
One is left wondering whether a process which admits that it doesn’t test knowledge is really designed to test skills so much as, given the vagueness of responses, it is intended to filter out those who don’t think and work in the way that the college does.
Faithroots 