THE Fair Access Commissioner lays the responsibility for the imbalance of students from different socio-economic backgrounds in our "ancient" universities unfairly on those institutions ("Universities urged to slash entry rules for key courses”, The Herald, January, 24). The problem is not so much with the universities but with a state school system that fails those from what are generally considered disadvantaged or deprived backgrounds, with families that have no experience of what is required of students to get into and to succeed at university, with a government that caps the number of places it will fund and then allows that number to be allocated to students not just from Scotland but from across nearly the whole of the EU, and with private schools that fail to share their expertise with schools which are managed and funded by the state which grants those same private schools extra financial support through generous charitable status breaks.

The universities must share some of the blame for relying, too often solely for even consideration, on academic attainment at secondary school and with too much attention given to standardised so-called aptitude tests and less often on face to face interviews. This is the easier way out for them when so many are applying for so few places and it disadvantages the already disadvantaged.

My background was working class but I never considered myself deprived or disadvantaged. From a very early age I wanted to be a doctor and achieved that thanks to my parents and the state schools I went to; I was the first in my family ever to go to university. For the last few years I have mentored students from my old school who wanted to study medicine. I know from their experience how difficult it has been for them to crack the near-Byzantine university application system but, eventually and with considerable effort and determination, they have, and no university has had to lower their standards "significantly" (and I would argue at all) as the commissioner is suggesting.

Schools have to teach students to the standards we require; the community, including private schools, need to address the gap in experience many feel; and universities should do more to assist students from less advantaged backgrounds to understand, prepare and present themselves for their peculiar application processes. Some already do this but clearly, if the Sutton Trust is correct, they are failing and not doing enough.

Dr Alan Rodger,

Clairmont Gardens,

Kelvingrove, Glasgow.

I READ with interest your article about slashing entry rules to university especially in courses such a medicine and law. I think that idea is ridiculous. You mention that universities have to lower entry grades for talented students from poorer backgrounds to reflect the minimum requirements of a course.

Surely if students from poorer areas are talented they should be able to achieve the necessary grades as they stand just now? It's another case of dumbing down educational standards. What happens when students with lesser qualifications cannot meet the pass marks in medicine or law? Do the universities lower the pass rates? Are we then going to have doctors in charge of people's lives with a reduced qualification?

It is an insult to students from poorer backgrounds to imply that the only way people from poorer areas can get to university is by watering down standards. There should be the same entry requirements for all regardless of where they come from.

Catherine Taylor,

14 Barra Avenue, Wishaw.