Message sender

May I correct two errors of transmission between myself and Lucy Hodges (THES, July 4)? I did not say that half our fellows are women. That will not be true for many years. But recent tutorial appointments have been running at about 50/50, just as undergraduate admissions have done, and we are very happy with that.

Ditto state schools. My point was that the raw numbers tell you very little. What matters, and what we try to do, is to encourage the widest possible range of potential students to apply, regardless of race, gender, creed, parental income, and any other irrelevant factor you care to name. Our students and tutors work enormously hard to get out this message.

Alan Ryan

Warden, New College Oxford