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Lord Mandelson is right to support a higher education system that "invests in everything from Classics to quantum physics" ("Lord Mandelson says higher fees must mean more help for the poor", 30 July), but the recent reversal of government policy on widening access (capping student numbers in the middle of an application round) threatens to cripple the economies of the new universities and the educational aspirations of current applicants. Higher fees will not redistribute educational opportunity - but greater capital investment in the new universities might.

Julia Swindells, Cambridge.