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Congratulations on giving two pages to the scandalously low proportion of black students at Oxford (Grades aren't enough. You have to get over people's preconceptions, 13 April). But such a heavy focus on race may be missing the point: poverty. For as Stephen Bush points out, he wouldn't have even gone to sixth form if it weren't for the EMA.
Stephen has been a tireless campaigner for egalitarianism here at Oxford, and he brings up what is surely the worst outrage of all: the number of lower-income people who actually come here. The interview system is great and weeds out fakers. But if you haven't had interview training you'd be at an immense disadvantage. Worse, you might not be encouraged to apply at all.
University staff continue to pay themselves titanic salaries without bothering to address one of the most profound problems of our times, since a ticket to Oxford is a ticket to power. Though as a white public schoolboy attending my mother's college, I'm happy.
Robin McGhee
St Anne's College, Oxford
• I commend David Cameron (even if he got the figures wrong) for raising the issue of black students in Oxford (Report, 12 April). It may be just as important for Oxford to think of the "ethnic" composition of its staff. Although Oxford has employed Asian scholars over the years, I employed the first African on the staff of the university in the late 1980s, when I was directing the Refugee Studies Centre at Queen Elizabeth House. The first was an Afar from Ethiopia, a PhD. from Cambridge. In 1993 we employed the second African at Oxford, Chaloka Beyani, who was our Crown Prince of Jordan fellow. He is currently senior lecturer in law at the LSE. I now see the law faculty has a Ghanaian on its staff: Dapo Akande, a lecturer in public law. I would like it very much if someone would be able to tell me I had my figures wrong.
Dr Barbara Harrell-Bond
Director, Fahamu Refugee Programme
• David Cameron's indignation at the shortage of black students at Oxford is well placed. Perhaps the prime minister could now turn his attention to the similar deficiency in the Queen's entourage.
Dr David Mervin
Arnside, Cumbria
• Monarchy is incompatible with the principle of social mobility (Letters, 11 April). But as countries such as Sweden, Japan and Belgium show, there is no necessary incompatibility between monarchy and a relatively equal society. Those of us who believe social mobility is at best a poor substitute for equality will, therefore, be inclined to worry less about the formal structures of wealth and power, and more about their substance.
Andrew Connell
Cardiff
