Gatekeeping EpiSTEMic territories: Disciplinary requirements in Engineering and Natural Sciences undergraduate admissions interviews at the University of Cambridge

Abstract

This article explores the gatekeeping practices involved in undergraduate admissions interviews comprising two “STEM” disciplines, Engineering and the Natural Sciences, at the University of Cambridge. It finds that the processes of inclusion and exclusion are not, unlike other gatekeeping encounters, determined primarily by rhetorical modes of self-presentation. They are instead determined by candidates’ ability to engage with and complete a series of problem sets that embed the discipline-specific epistemic and interactional requirements that comprise each discipline's “epistemic territory” (Heritage 2013). How candidates accomplish this goal is explored in each of the relevant disciplines, and contrasted with the requirements of non-STEM admissions interviews.