Examiners at Cambridge University have been warned to avoid using words like “genius” and “flair” because they are associated with men, an academic has revealed.
Tutors have been told not to use the terms because they “carry assumptions of gender inequality”, Lecturer Lucy Delap said.
She also claimed that men got more first class degrees at Oxford and Cambridge because female students struggle with the “male dominated environment” of the universities.
Delap told the Telegraph: “Some of those words, in particular genius, have a very long intellectual history where it has long been associated with qualities culturally assumed to be male.
“Some women are fine with that, but others might find it hard to see themselves in those categories”. The history lecturer pointed towards male-dominated reading lists and portraits hanging on college walls which are either of men or by men as contributing to the stigma.
The university aims to get rid of the “very vague talk” and is encouraging examiners to strictly stick to the marking criteria, Delap said.
She added: “We want to use language that is transparent.
“We’re rewriting our first two years of our History degree to create a wider set of paper choices, to make assessment criteria clearer, and to really try and root out the unhelpful and very vague talk of ‘genius’, of ‘brilliance’, of ‘flair’ which carries assumptions of gender inequality and also of class and ethnicity.”
The move comes after Oxford University’s decision to allow students to take a history exam at home in the next academic year in a bid to help women get higher marks.
The university found itself embroiled in a sexism row after critics blasted the move as “insulting” to women.
l Former Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw has warned that school standards are at risk if budgets continue to be slashed.
The ex-London headteacher who recently stood down as Ofsted’s chief inspector said Government cuts to education could jeopardise the rapid progress made by English schools.
He said: “We should be proud of huge progress that’s been made in English education over the last 20 years and people forget that England has the top performing education system in the UK, out-performing Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
“Funding has been part of the reason for that development and the Government needs to be careful that the cuts do not affect standards.”
In an interview with BBC radio Sir Michael also took aim at the Government’s grammar schools plan, describing it as a system where 80% of children “don’t do well”. His comments come as fresh analysis of the Conservative manifesto by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that despite their promise of £4bn extra for schools by 2022, there will still be a real terms per pupil cut of 2.8% by 2021/22 due to inflation and rising pupil numbers.
The Government’s new National Funding Formula was due to hit London schools the hardest with a £50mn cut to budgets by 2018/19.
IFS associate director Luke Sibieta said: “London schools are still going to be seeing a real terms cut but it won’t be as severe as previously proposed.
There has been a softening, but you can’t get away from the fact that there are cuts.”
Today hundreds of children, parents and teachers will gather in parks in 15 London boroughs to protest against school cuts with the Fair Funding for All Schools campaign, which is backed by Labour MPs.
Co-founder Jo Yurky said: “We’ve seen major concessions in the party manifestos but, sadly, not all of them go far enough.
At the very least, we need pupil funding to be protected in real terms over the next five years.
Anything that falls short of that is unacceptable.
So parents will be using events like today to keep the pressure up and make our voices heard.”
Schools Minister Nick Gibb said: “We will increase the overall schools budget by £4bn by 2022 — a real terms rise for every year of the Parliament compared to current spending plans — and ensure that no school has its budget cut as a result of a fair funding formula.”
l Dozens of teenage boys have turned up to school wearing skirts after their headteacher refused to relax the uniform code banning shorts despite the heatwave gripping Britain.
Pupils at the Isca academy in Exeter argued it was too hot for long trousers and asked if they could wear shorts as temperatures this week rose above 30C. When this was refused a handful turned up on Wednesday in skirts borrowed from friends and sisters. By Thursday the protest had grown and dozens were wearing skirts.
One boy told Devon Live he had been told on Wednesday the skirt was too short and his legs too hairy. Some of the boys had taken this into account and bought razors to shave their legs.
One boy in year nine wearing a skirt said the protest had started with five boys wearing skirts but he expected “hundreds” to follow suit. Asked if he was enjoying the experience, he said he appreciated the “nice breeze”.
Another said it was “quite refreshing”, pointing out that if even Royal Ascot had allowed racegoers in the royal enclosure to remove their jackets then the school ought to relax its dress code.
The mother of one of the boys who began the protest said she was proud of him. Claire Lambeth, 43, said her son Ryan, 15, “came home the day before he wore the skirt and complained about it being really, really hot at school.
“He said it was unbearable. I spoke to a teacher to ask about shorts and she said it was school policy [that they could not be worn].I did say this was exceptional weather, but they were having none of it. If girls can wear skirts, why can’t boys wear shorts?
“Ryan came up with the idea of wearing a skirt so that evening we borrowed one. He wore it the next day — as did five other boys. This morning there were about 50-60 of them in skirts.
“I didn’t expect it to take off like that. The school is being silly really — this is exceptional weather. I was very proud of Ryan. I think it was a great idea.”
Another mother said: “My 14-year-old son wanted to wear shorts. The headteacher told them: ‘Well, you can wear a skirt if you like’ — but I think she was being sarcastic. “However, children tend to take you literally, and because she told them it was OK, there was nothing she could do as long as they are school skirts.”
A third mother said: “Children also don’t like injustice. The boys see the female teachers in sandals and nice cool skirts and tops while they are wearing long trousers and shoes and the older boys have to wear blazers. They just think it’s unfair that they can’t wear shorts in this heat.”
