Letter: University is not a finishing school

All the current talk of tuition fees and graduate taxes misses the point: the value of our universities is being eroded by the policy of pushing through as many students as possible, regardless of their merits and the worth of the courses they study.

Obviously, many cannot afford to pay the full costs as they study. At the same time, many are never going to be able to repay these costs at a later date as the value of their degrees is not much better than useless.

University is not a finishing school for the youth of the country, nor is it a guarantee of a higher income. A degree is not needed for surf management but is for electrical engineering. If we restored the old colleges where vocational training and study was previously carried out and left universities to do what they were designed to do, then the problem would become easier to tackle.

Courses should be funded on their merits. If we need more teachers in three or four years offer funding to some extent. But if there is not going to be requirement for teachers for ten years cut the funding and apply it where there will be a need for additional graduates.

I am not advocating temporary closure of faculties but a realignment of effort to match supply with the future demand. It is not about "bums on seats" but the future of our nation.

IAN ROSS

Eden Lane

Edinburgh

I have always believed the adage that education at all levels is investing for the future, and Scottish education holds a worldwide reputation of being the very best. Now this is not one-up-manship, nor snobbery on our part, rather an aura bestowed upon us by others.

History shows that Scots have a great aptitude for invention and innovation, but is this purely coincidental - or the result of good, solid education?

Lord Brown had a difficult remit, and its widely recognised the need to re-establish economies, but his proposals "smart" of inequalities.

Fees up-front (I hope this is a joke ), fees in the middle or fees linked to interest rates at the end, propose little or no threat to the upper-middle class, nor the rich, but the fear is positive discrimination and exclusion, if you're from the wrong social class.

Education should not be elitist, nor a privilege - it should be a fundamental opportunity for everyone. It is imperative we keep the cost of education within the public domain.

DEREK MARKS

Broughty Ferry

Dundee

If MEMORY serves me correctly, it was John Knox who declared that Scotland was bound to ensure that her young people were educated to the highest of their potential so that the nation should derive the greatest benefit from their later endeavours and achievements. I do not think that he said anything about paying for a birthright.

GEORGE COOPER

Westgate

Leslie, Fife