Simon Jenkins claims that students at university face an “academic experience that has almost nothing to do with real life” (As thousands more teenagers scramble for university places, I have to ask – why?, 14 August).
I would invite him to join my journalism sessions at the University of Northampton, where he would need to finish the day with a radio or TV package plus social media content, as well as his written piece for the paper and online. Today’s student journalists need to produce far more varied content than when he was an editor.
His idea of cramming all that learning into two years is nonsense. Most students need a year to learn how to manage their lives and studies. And, more importantly, a two-year degree would mean teaching all year around, and only very privileged students have the luxury of not working in the holidays (as well as in termtime) to pay the bills.
Universities have changed a lot since the days of the people who comment on them in Westminster or Fleet Street. In some ways, they are in their ivory towers and we lecturers operate in the real world.
Adrian Warner
Senior lecturer in multimedia sports journalism, University of Northampton
• So much of Simon Jenkins’ article struck chords. I went to university when I was 27, didn’t pay anything, and it changed my life. I hated secondary school in the 1960s and couldn’t wait to leave, which I did at 17 with no A-levels. I was bored and just wanted to leave home and be independent. So I trained as a nurse in the paid, apprentice-type course that pertained. It was then that I realised my potential, so I went back to college.
Nowadays, my route through further education and university as an adult would be prohibitively expensive for many people, whereas I had an undergraduate grant from the local authority, followed by a research scholarship. And I realised that higher education is not about earning a higher salary, but learning about a wider world, even if you don’t end up at the destination you intended.
Perhaps every citizen should have a voucher to use for a university opportunity at a time they choose and the age that suits them – anywhere between leaving school and entering retirement. That would avoid the teenage scramble and contribute to wider access to higher education for those who seek it.
Jude Anderson
Cardiff
• Simon Jenkins makes pertinent points regarding the changing nature of British universities. I lectured at one of Scotland’s ancient universities for 24 years until I resigned in 2000 because of falling academic standards.
The final straw was being asked to teach tutorial groups of 20 students (when I was an undergraduate in the late 1960s, the tutorial size was four). Rapid expansion of student numbers from 1997 onwards hoovered up the less able middle class, but did little to attract the gifted working class.
The award of first- and upper second-class degrees to maintain institutional attractiveness has increased at the same time as student abilities and teaching quality have fallen. British universities are now commercial degree factories, with no vision or wider purpose other than survival in a market.
Dr Nick Williams
Auchenblae, Aberdeenshire
• I do agree with Simon Jenkins about the emphasis on university courses in this country. When I left school in 1960, university was an option only for the very few, even for grammar school pupils like me. However, I began work as a trainee librarian and studied via day-release and evening classes, all paid for by the local authority, to complete my degree-level qualification. I was earning at the same time and gaining hands-on experience.
When I wanted to return to work after raising a family I took an Open University degree, gaining friends and lots of experience as well as a degree to update my professional qualifications – again, paid for by part-time work.
I now have concerns for my eldest grandson, who wants, very sensibly, to take an apprenticeship, as I hear that companies are cutting back on employees and are not often looking at taking on apprentices.
Jean Austin
Crawley, West Sussex
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