jwb@csse.monash.edu.au wrote:

> The UK has a very quaint system. The universities do their selections
> *before* the A-level results are available, so they do it on the
> expected grades submitted by the schools 

This actually works very well. There is a "clearing-house" system to
match up students who didn't get their projected grades (or, sometimes,
did significantly better than expected) with university departments that
didn't get the expected quota of students.

> (plus interviews to make sure that only people with the correct 
> accents get into Oxford and Cambridge.)   8-))}

I know this is tongue-in-cheek, and others have pointed out that it
isn't really true, but I'll add my voice to the dissenters. Even in a
notably conservative college, thirty-five years ago there were students
with regional accents; I particularly remember a very broad Lancashire
and a couple of Cockneys. On revisiting the college recently, of the
students I met, there were more regional accents than otherwise, but
then it has changed a lot since I was there.

In fact, I believe there are significant numbers of Oxbridge students
these days who go to elocution lessons to achieve the accent to go with
the "Oxon." or "Cantab." tag.

John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com