THE notion that East Lancashire should have a university of its own is, I see, being cranked up again -- this time, with a five-year timetable to make it happen.

The idea has been floated before -- with one of the arguments for it being that our region deserves one just by virtue of its size.

It's also said that a 'uni' would be a catalyst for economic growth. No doubt, it would. There would be jobs for all sorts -- from lecturers to cleaners.

Who would pay their wages? Stand up, the ever-soaked taxpayers. But would they reap the reward in the form of better education for more?

Or more so-called education that delays thousands of young people from entering the labour market and furnishes them with watered-down qualifications when they do?

For, be sure, any University of East Lancashire would be down at the bottom end of the pile among the jumped-up ex-polytechnics that can only attract the less-gifted students to begin with, and whose degrees have much less value than those of the 'real' universities with entry standards that are far more strict.

To gauge the calibre of higher education that our much-vaunted university would have to offer one only needs, I think, to look at the performance of our three largest colleges of further education, upon one or more of which any university campus would no doubt be based.

How did they score in the A-levels league tables earlier this month? They were the bottom three.

Why so? Is it that these halls of academe are not so picky about abilities of their students to start with? And would it be any different if they went up the ladder to university status?

Not that the establishment of yet another university would make much difference to the devaluation that higher education has already undergone through it expanding beyond the levels of higher intelligence among the school-leaving population.

But, please, let us drop the pretence that more and more of it is a good thing.

It is a hugely expensive way of providing proud parents with mantelpiece photographs of their sons and daughters in caps and gowns gained for the achievement of less and less.