> My understanding is that the organisation's goal is figuring out how to spend money effectively and without bias. Sure, but there will always be some bias. I

> My understanding is that the organisation's goal is figuring out how to spend money effectively and without bias. Sure, but there will always be some bias. It's one of those things: they're wrong if they believe they can do away with all bias. Moreover, they are so wrong, I can't hold them responsible for it, even if they say they will hold themselves responsible for it. It's like a child saying "I will be responsible for building a time machine." You can't hold them responsible. But I get where you're coming from, I used to be more in your camp, but the longer I am out of academia the more I tend to look at the world in "grey terms" (I'm not implying you're still in academia or anything, that's just how my life journey is progressing at the moment). Oxford is one of their biases that they can't seem to get rid off. It's super clear. Also, it's understandable. When I look at where I'd hire the best CS students, I'd go to students that studied VUSEC courses (a research group at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam). I've been telling all kinds of people that only top tier CS students can complete their courses. But they haven't seen what I've seen (or they can't convince their managers). It's really a tough bias to get rid of, you understand your own uni intuitively so much more than anyone else's uni. Because does VUSEC really have the best students? Probably not. Is Oxford really the best place to be close to the best intellectual minds? Probably not. And I get that there's a fundamental point to be made (I'm making one myself that one can't get rid of all bias). But when I read the comments I'm reading too much emotion, not enough reason and empiricism. I don't want drama on HN, I want awesomeness about science and the world, which is what I usually find :)