ANDREW Denholm's article on access to medical schools ("Quarter of all medical students are privately educated", The Herald, May 26) contains a core fact "one-quarter of all medical students have attended private schools" - and the quote from Vonnie Sandlan, NUS Scotland president-elect: "It's shameful our medical schools are so unrepresentative of our society at large".
Having some time ago been involved in the admissions committee for entry into dentistry at Glasgow I am well aware that in the competitive selection process one is often comparing apples with oranges. The fault lies not with the selection process but with the fundamental differences between public and private education, where academic achievement is only part of the product that parents pay for.
In this instance the finger of accusation is pointed at university medical faculties when this imbalance is pretty much the norm in all professions. How many judges "came up the hard way"?
The reality is that wealth is everything. Wealth buys private education, wealth buys social standing and wealth buys access. In a competitive environment there can only be one winner, as in boxing, a good big 'un will always beat a good little 'un.
The day we find old boys from Glenalmond and Gordonstoun working the tills at Lidl we will have solved the problem.
David J Crawford,
Flat 3/3 131 Shuna Street, Glasgow.
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