Classism is a shameful part of life at university

An aerial view of Oxford University. ‘I found it baffling that they were not astonished, as I was, by the quadrangles, cloisters and wooden panelling.’ Photograph: Paul Thompson Images/Alamy

Bravo for Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett’s article (To state school alumni starting university, I say this: be proud of your background, 5 October). Finally someone stops tiptoeing around the truth about private schools: that they are not some kind of human right, but a form of segregation that no supposed meritocracy can counter.

When I arrived at the University of Oxford from a state comprehensive 30 years ago, I was met repeatedly with the following assumption: “Hello. Where are you from?” “Brighton”. “Ah, Roedean?”