Surprise, surprise! The study of classics at Oxford is dominated by the privately educated. The latest figures from the university show that just 41.9 per cent of those studying Latin and ancient Greek are state-educated. Meanwhile, psychology is the Oxford subject most dominated by comprehensive school pupils. Of the students admitted to these degrees, 84.8 per cent were from the state sector. 

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The classics numbers are sad – but inevitable. Greek and Latin A-Level have almost entirely disappeared from comprehensives. Grammar schools – cruelly cut by Conservative and Labour governments – are the last redoubt of state classical education. Even there, though, the subjects are in their death throes. Last year, 989 pupils sat A-Level Latin while just 206 sat A-Level Greek – and they were largely from private schools.

And so, the old, depressing accusations of classics being elitist will increase. Those claims have been around for centuries, and some classicists even revel in the elitism. The fact that it’s a ‘useless’ subject implies that only a supreme,........

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