The donor and admissions dilemma for universities

Letter from Mr Philip Keevil

Sir, Both Michael Beloff (comment, 20th December) and your leading article (21st December) make cogent points about my resignation as the Trinity College fundraiser, but do not address the fact that our ancient universities are already in crisis.

Oxford is in grave danger of slipping out of the ranks of the elite of world-renowned teaching and research universities. Its teachers are paid well below what they can earn in other walks of life or in American universities. There are virtually no endowment moneys to help needy students. Top-up fees are at best a partial solution.

Diversity in the student body and academic independence are worthy and achievable goals. Yet a great university is not like a railway or a hospital, to be managed by centrally mandated statistical goals. You suggest that Oxford is "more rigorously meritocratic" than all major American universities. Given the fact that Harvard and Yale (which my elder son attended), attract three times more applicants per place than Oxford, and admit a majority from the state sector, I find that hard to believe.

Twenty years ago Yale learnt that admissions and endowment are inexorably intertwined. Up to that time it focused entirely on academic prowess with regard to admissions, in much the same way espoused by many at Oxford. At the same time its endowment, provided largely by the generosity of previous alumni, was declining alarmingly in real terms. By not providing support in admissions for its alumni families it had strangled the golden goose, and was increasingly unable to help poorer students or even maintain its buildings. Today Yale's endowment tops $10 billion. Such is the success of Yale's fundraising that it has recently agreed to increase by some $7 million a year the money it provides to students in need, thus preserving its needs-blind admissions policy and needs-based financial aid programme. This is not an isolated story

I happen to believe that philanthropy is part of a duty to give back to society what you have received. I have been raising money for academic institutions on both sides of the Atlantic for over 25 years. I also believe passionately in Oxford and its college system. Oxford needs to make choices. If it takes your advice the decline may be slowed, but in another twenty years the university will no longer be among the ranks of the great.

Yours faithfully,
Philip Keevil,
c/o 127 Piccadilly, W1V 0PX,
21st December

Sir, When Michael Beloff and I were contemporaries at Magdalen College, Oxford, there was a fine institution called the President's Place. This allowed our then President T. S. R. Boase to nominate a handful of admissions per year without so much as a single A-level being required.

We never knew who the President's placemen were. Whether they were well-endowed financially or in other areas of interest to him, Tom Boase, who had come to Magdalen after handing over the Courtauld to Anthony Blunt, clearly used judgment to choose people who would fit in with their contemporaries. Doubtless Philip Keevil's son would have fitted in at Trinity if given the chance.

In the Britain of today, you can get into the House of Lords by giving money to a political party. You can enter the Cabinet by being a friend of the Prime Minister. Why should Trinity be holier than thou?

Yours faithfully,
Osman Streater,
Savile club,
69 Brook Street, W1K 4ER
21st December

Sir, of every pound that the charity receives from a donor of substance, 40p is provided by the government in the way of tax relief, so that it might be more correct for donors to refer only to the cost to them of their donation. If, however, a donor is expecting - or, indeed, receives - a benefit from his or her donation, that vitiates the entitlement to tax relief, so that, for example, a donor to Trinity College, Oxford who is said to have resigned in protest at the college's failure to accept his son, must, surely, be at risk of having any entitlement removed.

Yours etc,
J. M. L. Stone
41 Orchard Court,
Portman Square, W1H 6LF
21st December

Sir, I cannot recall a section on my son's Ucas form for "donations made to the university or college by parents".

Yours sincerely,
Keyth Richardson,
61 Tyne Crescent,
Brick Hill, Bedford MK41 7UN
21st December

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