51³Ô¹Ï

I am all in favour of academic freedom and democracy and frequently tell my elders and betters they are wrong. But G. R. Evans (THES, September ) should not delude herself. The principal reason why some people in some quarters assign a lead to Oxford and Cambridge is that people have been giving the two universities money since the Middle Ages and they now have quite a lot of it.

MICHAEL CRAWFORD University College London