Letter: Inequity of 'Ivy League'

Your views

I have been reading with great interest the wide range of views held in relation to the proposed "Ivy League" of universities ("Combine or be doomed", Education+, April 17) and can clearly see the striking resemblance its proposal and the grammar/comprehensive school system.

Although I gained good A-level results, unlike the majority of my peers, I chose to study at a "new university" due to the particular course offered, and its excellent reputation.

However, now that I continuously suffer slanderous and offensive comments based on the snobbery of "old universities", I can sympathise with how my parents must have felt when they failed to get into grammar school in the 1950s.

The proposed "Ivy League" can only cause even greater inequalities between the two types of university, mirroring the huge gulf between grammar and comprehensive schooling.

Greater funding would increase the already substantial wealth of the "top" universities, whilst the rest remain underfunded and in continual decline.

Instead of greater funding for the privileged few, the money should surely be spent raising the standards of those institutions that receive criticism, resulting in high-quality further education for every university student.