There has been lot of chat about Oxbridge and social mobility over the last few days and it’s all taken me back almost 30 years... back to my own attempt to scale the dreaming spires.
I’d arrogantly assumed I was destined for Oxford (I was insufferably smug in those days) and it seemed to me a place there would be the first step on some golden path to a better life. So, having done OK in my exams, up I went to Worcester College to interview for a place doing Philosophy, Politics and Economics (a degree that, from my experience, teaches none of those skills). There I sat — portly, shiny-faced and floppy-haired — as a don (with stomach-wrenching halitosis) gently grilled me on life, the universe and everything.
