9 DECEMBER 2006, Page 28

From Tommy Wide Sir: Charlie Boss says state school pupils

are dropping out of Oxford ‘in unusually high numbers’. But he is wrong. Considering that 53.4 per cent of all students at Oxford are from state schools, a 60 per cent drop-out rate from the state school sector does not seem particularly startling. As an Oxford student myself, I am surprised by how well my friends from state schools deal with the ‘potentially elitist social side’. Although problems do exist, these statistics are hardly ‘a major blow’ for those campaigning for broader participation at Oxford.

Tommy Wide

Somerville College, Oxford