Cambridge Wants Soap Opera To Make It School of the People

LibertySugar — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:00:31 PDT

Instead of using fancy brochures and an elitist image to attract students, Cambridge University is pitching the campus to Britain's top three soap operas as its latest marketing campaign.

Cambridge's spokesman said:

We're very keen to attract the brightest and best students regardless of their background. One of the better ways of communicating directly with potential students is to talk to them through the soaps and other programs they watch.

The British government, which funds both Cambridge and Oxford, has set a goal that half of all Britain's young people will attend college by 2010. With that mission, even the elite schools are targeting students from disadvantaged families. Officials hope that when the hard-trodden characters from EastEnders or Coronation Street enroll at Cambridge, all viewers will begin to picture themselves there, too. American schools adopt less salacious measures to attract a diverse student body - families making under $60,000 a year receive free tuition at Harvard. Do you think universities can have a diverse set of students, while keeping an elitist image?

Source

TresSugar

Cambridge Wants Soap Opera To Make It School of the People