Should poor Oxford students have to volunteer?

I quit the ‘poor people scholarship’, also known as the University of Oxford’s Crankstart scholarship, halfway through my first year. I was only four hours into my 25 annual hours of volunteering, tediously spent peeling vegetables for a charity roast dinner – a requirement set by the university itself that I had to fulfil in order to receive my bursary – when I made my decision.

Peeling parsnip after parsnip, I felt no warm glow about giving back to the community. My more cynical side thought it seemed like those patronising skill-building exercises for the unemployed. I felt only resentment at how more privileged students at Oxford hadn’t peeled a single carrot. Why should I have to?

Crankstart was founded by venture capital billionaire Sir Michael Moritz. A Christ Church alumnus who attended a Welsh state school, he was motivated by the help his father had been given.