Calendar: 1975-1976 Page 399

Annual Report of the Delegacy xxvii education on the principle that everyone should come and have try who wishes to The Open University in this country that advanced and widely admired development which owes so much to Jennie Lee goes far in this direction But even if restrictions on space didn't put open entry out of the question for us here in King's in the range of options offered in this country there is clearly also place for centres of excellence where entrance standards though not formidable are some- thing more than minimal and where there are good expectations of mean student performance It must be remembered that people usually do better when they are expected to do better and students are people Statistics suggest that demand in the United Kingdom for something of the sort that we offer here persists Applications for entry to UK Universities in 1973-74 from home candidates were per cent down on those for the previous year Ours here had fallen less and were only slightly fewer even though as have heard from schools some possible applicants don't apply here because they have heard that our standards are high Most of our applications are serious ones Appli- cants with statutory qualifications for entry into King's were for this session on average eight times as numerous as the vacant places on offer In some disciplines the ratio is much higher-in Laws for example it was 18 In the sciences where there is widely felt shortfall nation- ally we filled all our places for the current year The average of 'A' levels scores indicates no lowering of standards This is not large place compared to some At student population of 836 full-time equivalents it comes in size among London's eleven multi-faculty schools after University College Imperial LSE and QMC Our staff student ratio is 8-87 though it won't stay there fear in the years ahead and of this shall say more in moment With less than students notionally to each member of academic staff which is common in Britain students can be related much more intimately with University staff than is possible in some other countries Of course favourable staff student ratio is not in itself an absolute defence against misunderstanding between the two but it can and should be of great help in reducing it Perhaps because this is not very large place people here tend to know each other pretty well staff and students alike am also grateful to note the absence here of that rift between academic and administrative staff which have heard is some- times found elsewhere The confidence existing between academics and administrators owes much think to the fact that the head of the administration the Secretary Peter Shaw was before he became an