"Pendennis" follows "Pen" through his West Country upbringing to his debt-bilking sojourn at "Oxbridge University" (Thackeray himself spent five unproductive terms at Cambridge), his life as a literary man about town in the London of the early 1840s, his writing of a best-selling novel called "Walter Lorraine, " and his eventual marriage to his milksop cousin Laura.

WSJ: Book Review: Pendennis | New Grub Street | Keep the Aspidistra Flying | Books Do Furnish a Room | My Life Closed Twice

But the schools system has been geared to providing University (and principally Oxbridge) entrants for far too long to the detriment of the majority of children, and no matter how they disguise it it's obvious that many people want to retain that system because that's the only way they can see of protecting the perceived quality of a university degree.

BBC: Staying-on: Is it a good idea?

And British university students, especially those at Oxbridge, come disproportionately from prosperous families.

ECONOMIST: Public spending

The seat contains an ancient and beautiful city with an esteemed university based on the collegiate system of Oxbridge.

BBC: NEWS | VOTE 2001 | RESULTS & CONSTITUENCIES | City of Durham

But at university level, with the exception of Oxbridge, Oxford Brookes, London and Durham, British rowing is not up to much.

ECONOMIST: British and American rowing

Kate Robertson, director of development and alumni relations at Nottingham University, said the university had done "pretty well" this year and had received the largest corporate gift outside Oxbridge.

BBC: Record philanthropic fund-raising for UK universities