The American education system has always baffled me - but I think there needs to be greater equity across the board. I think blind-testing is the only way forward with scores adjusted ahead of the test for affirmative action based on national averages. There should be absolutely zero 'sporting scholarships'. By all means set up specialist higher-education facilities for sports and offer related degrees - but the idea that you can jump the queue in an education establishment because you can throw a pig skin accurately or swim fast is batshit.

The same with the Dean's list. You article tackles the problem of over-representation of whites relative to their talent, but you haven't dealt with class. Why should a middle class Asian student be prioritised over an inner city white kid who struggled through mainstream school? When you start making assumptions about entire groups of people (like all white people are inherently wealthy and privileged) you leave yourself open to criticism.

Once you have nationally and secretly adjusted the scores of indidividual students based on their ethnicity, their geography, their economic background and any (and all factors) that might impact them - then you have a list of students. To cut out the bias all these students should be listed with ID codes rather than names. Universities should then offer those students the places entirely blind.

The race, gender and economic mix of their classes should come as a total surprise to the university on day one - the algorithm that sorts the students should be regularly reviewed by statisticians and data scientists from across society, agreed by a majority vote and inaccessible to politicians and teachers at every level of society.