Should Prince William, Michael Douglas, Bob Dylan and Mohammad Khatami, the former president of Iran, appear on Have I Got News For You in a spot-the-odd-one-out round, the answer will be found in an inaccessible, windswept spot on the northern tip of the East Neuk of Fife. These unlikely bedfellows all possess what is rapidly becoming one of the most prestigious bits of paper in Britain: a degree from the University of St Andrews. Only the prince slogged and crammed for it, however. The others received honorary degrees.

St Andrews has just been named Scotland’s University of the Year for the second time in three years by The Sunday Times Good University Guide. It achieved the highest ranking for a Scottish institution yet, finishing fifth in the UK league table, and was the highest placed multi-faculty establishment after Oxbridge.

As Scotland’s oldest university, St Andrews has had almost 600 years to hone its technique and could be expected to do well.

But what is interesting is that in the past seven years, it has rapidly ascended the academic charts while openly flouting Labour's policy of widening access by lowering the entrance barrier for students from deprived backgrounds. Dr Brian Lang, the university’s principal and vice-chancellor, who retires in December at the age of 63, has been one of the few leading academics to speak out against this form of social engineering. Lang, a social anthropology graduate from Edinburgh University, is the most elitist educator to have come out the capital since Miss Jean Brodie.

Sitting in his wood-panelled office in College Gate, Lang knows that the students are the creme de la creme. There has been no shifting of the goal posts or levelling of the playing fields on the hallowed turf of this ancient university. Not only is Lang against lowering standards, he also wants school exams to be more difficult.

“I would like to see Highers and A-levels made harder,” he says. “We have so many applicants wanting to come to St Andrews who have five Highers at A or three or four A-levels at A. The problem we have is differentiating at the top end. I’m not saying the exams are easy — they’re not. But if they were difficult, this would let the stars shine. I’d like to see them stretched a bit more. Maybe we should look at the grading within the Higher system.”

When he arrived at St Andrews in 2001, the university was ranked 20th in Britain. Lang has moved it steadily up the league tables by concentrating on just one thing: excellence. “It’s about not compromising on that,” he says. “Never hire mediocre staff because you are stuck with them. Only take the very best students wherever they can be found, whatever their circumstances. If you are small, you have to be good. If you are small and mediocre, the end is in sight.”

It’s a surprisingly old-fashioned view from a university that has a globally recognised department on terrorism. It’s a politically incorrect view from an organisation that has educated the first minister of Scotland. Elitism has become a dirty word in academic circles.

“Look at the cheering when the British Olympic team came home,” says Lang. “Where were the snide remarks about elitism then? If we are to compete internationally, somewhere has to concentrate on producing top performers.”

The joke among academics is that diversity at St Andrews means wearing a kilt rather than a dinner suit at the university’s social events. St Andrews’s outdated reputation as a tweedy place full of braying English accents was temporarily given a boost when Prince William chose to study there, meeting his girlfriend Kate Middleton on campus. While other university principals breathed a sigh of relief that they weren’t saddled with the attendant security issues, Lang saw the prince’s arrival as a vehicle for promoting the university at home and overseas.

“Of course it benefited us,” he says of the prince’s tenure. “But being in the spotlight for four years was not easy. We had some interesting moments.” Ask him what would have happened had anything gone wrong, and he silently draws a finger across his throat.

Lang is not blind to the need for a diversified student base.

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