I failed the 11-plus but got a place at Oxbridge. We still need a fairer system for universities

I was part of an experiment to make the most elite universities open up to the best students, regardless of their start in life, writes Alan Rusbridger. We looked for potential, not background. The results speak for themselves

What some students lacked in conventional social polish or confidence, they more than made up for in resilience and life experiences (Getty)

What’s a university education for – and who deserves to get one? Are lecturers right to strike? Should humanities subjects be defunded, or even abolished? Should so-called “Mickey Mouse” degrees be scrapped? Are student loans a rip-off? Do private schools give an unfair advantage, or is there a stigma attached to perceived privilege?

As we enter another A-level results week and teenagers face the fierce annual scramble for places, I wonder if I can remember a time when so many searching questions were being asked about higher education in the UK, and with so few clear answers. For me, having recently spent six years at one of our most elite universities, the University of Oxford, the first two questions are still the most fascinating: what’s it for, and who gets it?

Oxford is regularly ranked the best university in the world, so it is clearly doing a lot right – and has done for more than 800 years. When I arrived to head one of its colleges, Lady Margaret Hall (LMH), in 2015, there was nonetheless much soul-searching by many colleagues across Oxford about whether the admissions procedures were as fair as they could be.