Positive discrimination a price worth paying in universities
I READ with considerable interest the comments emanating from St Andrews University expressing concern about middle class children losing out in respect of university entry to those from disadvantaged backgrounds (“University chiefs warn middle class students pushed out”, The Herald, April 23).
It was better late than never, in my view, that three years ago the Scottish Government instructed all universities to increase the number of students from the poorest 40 per cent of communities. For generations middle class parents have been prepared to allocate a significant element of their financial resources toward the education of their children, even in the face of tuition fees in other parts of the UK. There is, of course, nothing essentially offensive about parental aspiration in that regard.
How life has changed since the Robbins Report confirmed in 1963 that only five per cent of British young people went to university. That percentage is now of the order of 50 per cent. The middle class has taken advantage of that expansion, even more than before the universities fulfil their hopes for their children by providing qualifications which secure well-remunerated jobs and maintain their class status in the world.
Life, indeed, is not fair and never will be. However, measures can always be taken to make it more equitable and to make the playing field, as it were, a bit more level. Much more needs to be done to build the inclusive society and to eradicate what has been described as a poverty of aspiration among the disadvantaged in our country. If, in order to contribute toward the realisation of these ends, there needs to be a measure of positive discrimination in favour of the less privileged, then I would say so be it. Ian W Thomson, 38 Kirkintilloch Road, Lenzie. THE Frost Report in 1966 broadcast an iconic sketch staring John Cleese and the futureTwo Ronnies satirising the UK caste system of upper , middle and working classes. It says much that despite the passage of half a century and the reported advent of “the classless society” where we are all in it together that, in its admissions policy, St Andrews University acknowledges the continued existence of stratification in our society determined principally by the possession of inherited wealth. The reportage implies that potential students from a middle class background may be disadvantaged by a policy designed to facilitate access to tertiary education for the spawn of the great unwashed.
What the original sketch failed to represent was the presence of a fourth hidden class of the Establishment which looks down on all of us squabbling amongst ourselves and laughs loudest at the joke. I’m sure the humour is not lost on the dons of St Andrews University. I wonder which of the four groups they would consider themselves members. David J Crawford. Flat 3/3 131 Shuna Street, Glasgow.