Cambridge University wants to shed its elitist image. It thinks soap operas can help.
The university said on Tuesday it had written to producers of Britain’s three leading soaps, EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale about including Cambridge in their story lines — a change from typical plots that revolve around Britain’s pub culture, working class woes and messy sexual escapades.
Spokesman Greg Hayman said approaching the shows — one is set in a gritty London neighborhood, another in a downtrodden Manchester community and the third in a rural village — was part of a bid to correct the perception that Cambridge was “not for young people from ordinary backgrounds.”
“We’ve very keen to attract the brightest and best students regardless of their background,” Hayman said.
“One of the better ways of communicating directly with potential students is to talk to them through the soaps and other programs they watch,” he said.
Like all British universities, Cambridge and its rival Oxford are government-funded, and they are under pressure to become more inclusive.
Many in Britain’s poorer communities view attending Oxford or Cambridge as an impossible dream — an elitist image that is persistent but unfair, according to university officials.
University administrators point out that Oxford and Cambridge are not more expensive than less esteemed universities, because tuition fees are capped by law at about £3,000 (US$5,350) per year.
Hayman said the university’s approaches had not yet resulted in any firm commitments from TV producers, although several had responded and one crew was planning an exploratory visit to Cambridge.
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