What a wonderful gift from Michael Moritz, and what an irony that, if his father fled to Britain today, he might well – if your report is accurate – be excluded from his son’s generosity (Tycoon gives £75m for Oxford’s poorest students, 12 July). Many young human beings who come to the UK as asylum seekers are not granted Iindefinite, however discretionary, leave to remain. If offered a place at university, they must pay overseas student fees – in Oxford’s condition, more than £13,000 a year – however they are excluded from the administration-backed loan that would cover their (hopefully, reduced) tuition fees. Only, under contemporary regulations, with a complete fee waiver and a large contribution towards living costs can most young human beings with DLR study at Oxford or any other English university. Without generosity on this scale, the admirable goal of Oxford’s vice-chancellor, of “ensuring that all barriers – absolute or perceived – are removed from students’ choices”, cannot be achieved.Nicholas SagovskyLondon• As an Oxford graduate who has taught for 30 years in the state sector, one of my roles is to encourage more of our pupils to aim high and apply for Oxbridge. The bursary is a magnanimous gesture that will certainly aid to alleviate the financial concerns of some pupils.The issue for many schools is provision for those students with absolute academic potential. Whereas many private schools are able to teach small groups, most state schools struggle with thinly spread resources. We run extra classes for talented pupils where we can, however teachers are pulled in many directions (exceptionally with pressures to improve more mundane “headline” results). As well as its brilliant summer schools, perhaps Oxford could do more in terms of outreach to schools, deploying specialist staff to run the booster classes that schools simply do not have the capacity to locate up.Jon MeierSt Albans, HertfordshireUniversity of OxfordHigher educationAccess to universityStudentsImmigration and asylumguardian.co.uk © 2012 Twitter News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Employ of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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