Sir: The Oxbridge admissions system would indeed defeat the analytical
powers of some of our greatest thinkers. Unfortunately it is the ingenuity displayed by schoolmasters such as Mr Smart that confuses the situa- tion.
His clever stratagems have procured places for students he knows to be unsuited to the demands of an Oxbridge course. I often wondered how so many guffawing nincompoops had managed to get in — all is now clear.
There is no 'poverty of ambition' among state school candidates at Oxbridge, who as Mr Smart generously points out tend to achieve far more academically in their three or four years. It is hardly surprising that tutors who feel they are being second- guessed opt for candidates who apply in a more straightforward manner. The only pity is that pupils from private schools still manage to claim an undeserved number of places at Oxford and Cambridge.
Admission to or rejection from any uni- versity determines the shape of a life. At a time when the supply of places struggles to meet the demand for them we should not mourn if genuinely motivated students are winning some of the more keenly sought- after positions.
Needless to say I am an ex-public school- boy filled with archetypal middle-class guilt.
Stefan Stern
24 Coalbrook Mansions, Bedford Hill, London SW12
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