Helena Morrissey

Helena Morrissey: my manifesto for the next govenor of the Bank of England

The start of term at Oxford University is bittersweet for the close-knit Morrisseys; we have just ‘lost’ three offspring to their undergraduate studies. Dropping them off at their colleges (Wadham, Christ Church and Keble, with another Morrissey at All Souls), my husband Richard and I felt a little wistful as well as proud. Every year we observe the striking diversity of the students in every sense bar one: they all seem very clever. Oxford is getting something right — broadening accessibility by contextualising offers, while unashamedly sticking to high standards. This is helping it maintain its crown as Britain’s highest-ranked university, one of four in the global top ten (the other six are all American). State-school-educated, I was a (very) early beneficiary of what would now be called an access scheme at Cambridge and remain grateful for a process that was testing yet fair. In this, as in so many other areas key to future prosperity, Britain is leading the way.

Education loomed large for me this week; I’m a Fellow (governor) at Eton and the Provost and Fellows held our first meeting of the academic year. As always (since long before Labour’s declared policy to kill off private schools, with Eton top of the hit list), we spent much of the meeting exploring ways to expand the outreach programmes. Ninety current pupils have free places, compared with 27 a decade ago, and Eton has very successful partnerships with two state schools, Holyport College and the London Academy of Excellence. In all, Eton has spent nearly £67 million on financial aid since 2009 but there’s more that could be done — and we will be doing it. The one thing the ‘P&F’ never contemplate is lowering standards; the stories of how scholarships transform lives are utterly compelling. As Eton’s forward-thinking headmaster Simon Henderson puts it: ‘Abolishing excellence never got anyone anywhere.

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