UNIversity Play

Dear Editor
My letter regarding Universities only attracted one reply that in its self was surprising maybe more people agree with me then I thought. As expected we did get one back from the Labour party through Ashley Wise, I am no going to go through his letter but one thing did stick in my craw is his attack on when he finalised with “ As for Martin Clarke’s attacks on student lifestyles, please stop being stereotypical” Ashley Wise as a Young Labour member seems to condone the frivolous side of Student lifestyle.
Let me say that over the last 40 years of Teaching Judo, Sombo and Martial Arts I have taught countless University graduates and even some University Lectures and Professors when they were student, Yes some of them had to work very hard at their studies, plus earning money through their Holiday to continue their stay at University. Originally the long Summer Holiday were developed so Farmers Sons could return to the farm to help with the harvest and some students use the same principle to finance their education, they know that spending 3 to5 years working hard will pay dividends in later life.
This I am afraid in my opinion is not the norm any more it seems to me that the pursuit of pleasure by University students is more important then academic success and some of the low standard course on offer add to that. I wrote an article similar to this some years ago only to be told by a parent,” great deal of University is about having a good time and having Gap years that’s part of their education”. When I said what about the Kids who can not get a job or those on low wages, where do they get their loans for good time and Gap years, the reply was “those who have a brain should be rewarded because they will the wealth creators and future government leaders” that sort of answer you would expect from a toffee nosed Tory but no it came from a Tony Blair supporter.
All previous government have done is produced a class of University Snobs who believe they are superior to those who did not attend University it has convinced parents if their child does not make university they are a failure, what it used to produce was an Academic Elite. Equality under Labour was a joke

Martin Clarke Sittingbourne