I READ an article recently about how top universities will charge more than £9,000 to keep their rankings.

My main emotion on reading this was anger. Apparently, top universities such as Oxford and Cambridge will “inevitably” have to charge more if they want the best students and avoid losing their reputations for excellence.

As if the best students are the ones who can afford such dramatic changes. As if the best students are there not for their curious and excellent minds, but merely to fund education’s pride and vanity.

I was positively livid that future generation may not have a shot at becoming the best they can be because they were frightened off by the potential increase in financial payments for their education.

How can we expect our children in the years to come, when having a university degree is a key factor of future survival, to succeed when they can’t believe that every educational option is open for them?

It really does make me see red that some universities now are putting their rank above that of young people’s futures.

Isabelle Singleton, Main Street, Knapton, York.