University admissions and messy exits | Letters

Bernie Evans asks a critical question about pupils from underprivileged backgrounds and suggests a more generous route into university (Letters, 29 June). We have been in this situation before, decades ago, in the context of adult education. By focusing on women’s return to learning and then access to higher education, we discovered that their children followed them.

The answer seemed to lie in the home as much as school. None of my parents or grandparents went to university. After leaving school, I followed my father into shipbuilding and coal mining. After 15 years of night schools, weekend schools and university extramural classes, I gained scholarships to Ruskin College and Magdalen College, Oxford. My children both went on to university and professional careers.