YOUR report: Applications to Oxbridge reveal a divided city (Evening Post February 18) comes as no surprise. We were told that there were far more applications for Oxbridge from the North West/West areas of Bristol than there were from the South/East of the city. Moreover, the article stated that: "Independent school pupils are nearly seven times as likely as pupils in non-selective state schools to get to Oxbridge."

Bristol East MP Kerry McCarthy predictably commented on the unfairness of if it all, moaning that: "There remains a significant disparity between state school and private school students going to the top universities." Therefore, for the purposes of debate, let us assume for a moment that all schools in Bristol are housed in similar buildings, and the quality of teaching is identical. So what might you ask, creates Ms McCarthy's 'significant disparity'? Could it not be the case that secular lifestyles sometimes take precedence over the cerebral parental attributes needed to sow the seedcorn of higher education in their children. If so, perhaps parents in the North West/West of the city are shunning 'keeping up with the Joneses' materialism which might detract from their parental responsibilities. Maybe the prospect of an education for children at Oxbridge is preferable to the dubious delights of: second cars (or indeed any car at all) fitted kitchens, double glazing, garden decking, or holidays abroad.

Surely any 'significant disparity' of entry to top universities is best met by accepting that the education /wealth of our country should not depend on the materialistic gross domestic product but the ability to think independently of the state. If so, universities should be allowed to independently select their intake without interference from those who want to manufacture an educational Utopia devoid of any real academic achievement. If not, this could surely lead to the comprehensive debasement of university education.

R L Smith.

Knowle