When the men’s and women’s boats took to the water for the 2025 Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, a few students who would have hoped to be part of the crews were missing.
Matt Heywood, Molly Foxell and Kate Crowley, all of Cambridge, did not take part after a complaint from Oxford University Boat Club over their eligibility was upheld by an independent panel. All three students are studying at Cambridge for PGCEs, a teacher training qualification. Oxford University Boat Club had argued that a PGCE “is a diploma … not a degree”.
The decision seems to reflect a specific ideal of the university as a place of scholarly focus unencumbered by more practical vocational qualifications. It’s also far from a new attitude towards teacher education as an academic discipline.
