She tells us that last year 1,200 hopefuls subjected themselves to the universities' admissions systems. After all The Times ranks them 2 and 3 in the world while the Institute of Higher Education of Shanghai Jiao Tong University pegs them a 2 and 10 respectively.

According to Ms Kennedy the candidates, "faced questions including: 'Here is a piece of bark, please talk about it' (biological sciences, Oxford); 'Put a monetary value on this teapot' (philosophy, politics and economics, Cambridge); and 'At what point is a person 'dead'?' (medicine, Cambridge).

"The answer to the latter is possibly when brain seizure results from wrestling with 'Are you cool?', posed by Oxford's philosophy, politics and economics department."

Jessica Elsom, of Oxbridge Applications, a firm which offers prospective students help to cope with the examination and charges up to £850 for its tutoring, told Ms Kennedy that the interview process was "notoriously eccentric", but added: "With the increase in numbers of students excelling at A-level, Oxbridge interviews are one way of finding out who really cuts the mustard."

One example of that eccentricity: a series of banana related questions with which candidates have grappled in previous years, including: "How might you argue that what everyone says is a banana is not a banana?"