Acceptance to universities

certain Scottish universities as superfluous to indigenous educational

needs in order to provoke controversy where none should exist.

Despite Mr Robertson's dogmatic assertion I would doubt that any

Scottish university has to fill half its places with students from

outwith the country. On the contrary, native Scots aspiring to

university entrance, even with good academic credentials, often find

that acceptance is not automatic.

Perhaps the motivation underlying selection is not inseparable from

the need both to maintain high academic standards and to promote a

cross-fertilisation of ideas that are not always the hallmark of a

parochial institution. The latter is arguably essential to bring out the

very best in student and teaching staff alike through the media of both

tutorial and seminar. In this respect, credit must also be given to the

impetus currently provided by Erasmus and similar schemes promoting

inter-continental student exchange for a limited period in a selected

academic course.

It is an accepted fact that universities must be ever larger economic

units to remain viable. Fortunately Scottish university education is a

marketable commodity. Mr Robertson clearly fails to appreciate the

excellence of the four-year honours course with its wide range of

subject choice affording an extremely liberal education.

As the ongoing demand for the erection of a Highland university must

convey, there is no lack of interest among Scots of all ages and

geographical locations to secure a university education often at

considerable personal cost and self-sacrifice.

In this connection Tony Benn, MP, has publicly voiced his conception

of the future role of universities as akin to that of public libraries.

People aged from nine to 90 would be enabled to enrol at any stage in

life, or at several stages in life, to satisfy a personal need ''to be

the best that I can be''. Hence universities must remain supra-national.

John R. Stephen,

76 Randolph Road,

Glasgow.