State schools must develop their own “old boys’ networks” so pupils can benefit from links to top universities, Lord Adonis has said. The schools minister said he had been struck by how many Oxford dons were on the governing bodies of elite private schools and how rare it was for state schools to have similar connections. In a lecture at the Cass Business School in London, he said the Government’s new model of trust schools, backed by businesses, universities or faith groups, would help foster these partnerships. Photograph: Alamy