This country needs to make the most of its talents and Oxford Colleges can help by making sure that they take the most talented students, regardless of their background.   I was lucky enough to get a place at Oxford through Prof. Neil Tanner's scheme. Neil's work meant that students from many schools with no past history of sending students to Oxbridge started to go. Thirty years after my own student days, there is still a lot of work to be done to encourage applications from bright students whose family background means that they otherwise might never consider it. I am hoping that we can fund initiatives as innovative and effective as Neil's, to open up opportunities for the next generation of students.

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