Letter: Wasted degrees

When I applied to attend university to study mathematical physics, albeit some years ago, I was made aware that I could apply for funding from UKAEA (UK Atomic Energy Authority).

The grant was on the basis of my working for them for part of the summer holidays and, if memory serves, for a period of two years once I qualified. Surely there are opportunities for such funding of students today.

Of course, this would not cover all courses, but some of the degrees available do not offer much in the way of usefulness as an end product, and should not be subsidised by taxpayers.

University education is a joint venture between those who benefit by being educated and the employers who will use the end product (the graduates). Both parties wish to gain by the process. It should not be treated as a way of putting off career decisions for several years.

There is no doubt that good graduates are essential to the prosperity of our nation, but a degree for the sake of a degree is just a degree, a piece of paper, not a means to a good living or fulfilling career. It entails a waste of resources both by the graduate and by those that fund them.

Let us distinguish between courses that are going somewhere and offering a benefit to all parties, and those that are basically ego trips for the participants and "bums on seats" for the universities. After that is the time to start looking at funding.

Ian Ross

Eden Lane

Edinburgh