Malala makes the grade to study at Oxford
MALALA YOUSAFZAI, the schoolgirl activist who survived an attempted murder by a Taliban gunman, has won a place at Oxford University.
She said she was “so excited” after finding out that she had secured the three As in her A-levels that she needed to take up a place to read philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.
Yousafzai, 20, was seen celebrating with friends yesterday at Edgbaston High School for Girls in Birmingham after picking up her grades for her A-levels in history, maths, religious studies and geography. “So excited to go to Oxford!” she told her thousands of followers on Twitter. “Well done to all A-level students – the hardest year. Best wishes for life ahead.”
‘So excited to go to Oxford! Well done to all A-level students – the hardest year. Best wishes for life ahead’
There was speculation that Yousafzai, who is the youngest ever Nobel Prize laureate, was considering quitting the UK and moving to the US. But in an interview last year she revealed that she had been invited to Lady Margaret Hall for an interview. She said afterwards that it was “the hardest interview of my life”.
One of her heroes, Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani president, is an alumni of the college, which was the first in Oxford to admit women. Yousafzai revealed that she had also applied to the London School of Economics, Durham and Warwick universities.
Yousafzai has lived with her family in Birmingham after being treated at the city’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital following her attack by Taliban gunmen in 2012. Yousafzai was shot in the head after writing an anonymous diary about life under Taliban rule.
Yousafzai, 20, has voiced an ambition to return to Pakistan and become a politician.