University entry standards must rise to maintain free places - John McLellan

No-one should be surprised the Scottish Government is being forced to cut free places for Scottish students at our universities, it is the consequence of massive higher education expansion and falling school exam standards.

If free university education is to be maintained the number of courses and places must be reduced, says John McLellan

Education minister Jenny Gilruth only succeeded in making a fool of herself at yesterday’s education committee by trying to blame UK Government immigration rhetoric.

More students meet university requirements because the entry qualifications themselves have not changed, but the standard required to achieve them has dropped, and too many people go to university because it’s expected or for the “experience”, not because it guarantees a brighter future.

But as budgets have tightened, the educational experience itself is suffering because the number of lecturers has not matched demand, and Scotland persists with obsolete four-year degrees when they could easily be cut to three.

At the same time, colleges have been constantly squeezed and thousands of young people are going to university for four years when they could have achieved the same outcome from a shorter college course.

Journalism is a good example, where hundreds of students are currently on four-year courses when 30 years ago industry needs were met by just one diploma course at Napier which took a maximum of two years.

There are no easy solutions, but if free university education is to be maintained, the number of courses and places must be reduced, course lengths cut, entry standards raised, and the vocational college sector boosted. University education cannot be the preserve of those who can afford it, but nor is it a right.