With so many advantages from birth, it is no wonder that the middle classes go on to dominate top universities. According to a report by the Office for Fair Access, intelligent children from England’s richest fifth are seven times more likely to go to university than intelligent children from the poorest 40 per cent. This is up from six times as likely in the mid 1990s. As you move up the rankings toward Oxbridge at the summit, the imbalance grows. In 2002–03, 5.4 per cent of Cambridge and 5.8 per cent of Oxford students came from ‘low participation neighbourhoods’. By 2008–09, it had fallen
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