Indecent Interval in a Good Cause

The Oxford brand guaranteed this scandal would resonate. Two officials of Pembroke College, one of Oxford's 39 constituent colleges, had to quit last week in disgrace when it emerged they were willing to admit a bright but not stellar boy whose father was offering to contribute $420,000. Unfortunately for them, the "father" was a reporter for the Sunday Times. Pembroke and Oxford swiftly repudiated their supposedly wayward officials. All Britain united in condemning the sale of university places. And who could disagree? In modern meritocracies, state-funded universities are supposed to be incubators of talent, not whorehouses for the already privileged. All...