This week, there’s a strange absence in Oxford. For years, in December, you’d suddenly see a strange invasion of the streets of the university town. White-faced, terrified 17-and 18-year-olds, preparing for their university interviews. Colleges, tea rooms and restaurants were haunted by these poor, clever souls, mumbling equations and gerundives to themselves. Well, no more.

If candidates clam up on screen, it’s much harder to respond to even the kindest don, hundreds of miles away

The teenage geniuses are still applying to Oxford – but from the comfort of their bedrooms at home. In-person interview was temporarily halted, quite understandably, in 2020 because of Covid. But Covid came and went. And, in 2023, the Oxford colleges voted, by 24 to seven, to keep interviews online for another five years. Of course they did. How much easier for the colleges not to have to feed the applicants and put them up. How much easier for dons to sit at their screens at home – no need to go into college; no need to dress up below the waist.

It’s another example of Mount’s Rule of Laziness: Any Temporary Rule that Suits the Employee and Inconveniences the Public Becomes........

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