Is the pursuit of academic excellence and fairer entrance rules mutually exclusive?
Sir, As a mentor to gifted students at struggling comprehensives, I believe that the Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Alison Richard (“Cambridge chief cries foul over push for state pupils”, report, Sept 10) got it wrong. There is no inherent contradiction between pursuing excellence and admitting more state school students. Able youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds, especially, can contribute valuable new perspectives on, for instance, economics, medicine and engineering. However, the current admissions process often fails to identify their intellectual potential. Admissions tutors tend to look for advanced subject knowledge, verbal fluency and academic thinking skills. These cannot really be developed in a large, mixed-ability sixth form. So, comprehensive school pupils who succeed often had private lessons or were coached by highly educated parents. What Cambridge is being asked to do is create fairer entrance rules and enable more of the brightest to catch up. This does not mean the
