A plea to Oxbridge colleges to honour their offers…from someone who would have missed out

My most cherished correspondence dates back to December 23, 2002: an offer letter from St Anne’s College, Oxford, to pursue a degree in mathematics. The dream subject at the dream university, and the catalyst for my development as mathematician and educator. I sat my exams, earned my grades, gleefully took my place. I didn’t realise it then, but that made me one of the lucky ones.

If history does not repeat itself then surely it rhymes. At around the same time I was preparing for my A Levels and looking ahead to Oxford, the SARS coronavirus emerged. I knew little of it then; truth is, I know little of it now. As a would-be pandemic, it scarcely registered on my radar. I was blissfully unaware of the disruptive force of deadly viruses (though a sensationalised plot in television series 24 kept me up some nights). That a virus could thwart my exam grades never occurred to me.

Almost two decades on, I remain among the lucky ones. COVID-19 has not, so far, affected my health or job prospects. I have embraced the middle-class trope of converting my conservatory to makeshift home office in a sleepy Oxfordshire town. Here I can remain productive and isolated from the threat of infection. My good fortune owes much to the safety net afforded by my Oxford and Harvard degrees…