I'm not familiar with the system in the UK, but most countries in the Continental Europe practice meritocratic discrimination. Admissions are primarily based on

I'm not familiar with the system in the UK, but most countries in the Continental Europe practice meritocratic discrimination. Admissions are primarily based on academic achievements, which correlate highly with family background. The same meritocratic discrimination also exists in the US. Legacy admissions do not replace it but add another layer of inequality on top of that. Meritocracy is fundamentally unfair, especially for young people. Success largely depends on things beyond your control, such as talent, personality, and interests; genetics, family background and random chance. I was somewhat involved in educational policy in Finland in the 2000s. Back then, one of the major issues was that meritocratic practices had started to decrease social mobility instead of increasing it. When higher education was expanding rapidly, most admissions were from working class / rural families. But once that generation started having children, their kids had a significant advantage in meritocratic admissions over those from less educated families. The culture had also changed to make the meritocratic discrimination worse. Old-school socialists and rural liberals strongly believed that education was the key to success, both for the individual and the society. But over the decades, the working class started rejecting education. Their children, who were already academically disadvantaged, became less interested in higher education.