Add varsity

Any proposals being made about students returning to university miss the point entirely.

Distance learning/online lectures and social distancing are inappropriate for young people who are (very) largely only mildly affected by Covid-19. It is only when one reaches a more mature number of years that it is dangerous, unless one has underlying health issues.

University – and college – are crucibles within which the young develop in all aspects of life. It is not simply a degree factory. It is also a way for boy to meet girl and vice-versa. It is a place in which one learns one’s ability to make a case and to argue the toss about just about everything. It is a place in which one may attain a high level in competitive sport or develop a taste for the political fray.

It is not a place for people to hunker down behind a screen and withdraw from life. When I consider some of the downright dangerous jobs I did in my summer vacations, which would be illegal now, I realise that they gave me a good understanding of my capabilities, in much the same way as happened in the other aspects of the varsity experience. Had I missed them I would have missed the greatest and most stimulating times in my three

score years and ten. I would not have missed them for the world.

I would suggest this is the time for the young to say “No.” They must strike out on their own, just as the students in “Les Évènements” in Paris in 1968 did. They may not agree now with what they stood for then, but, by God, they lived life and probably have no regrets.

PETER HOPKINS Morningside Road, Edinburgh