THE issue of August 21 demonstrated beyond doubt how well our Year 13s have done at A level.
We might wonder, however, how well prepared they are for the next step, on which many will have by now embarked.
At school, there is a strong case for an outside speaker - a financial expert - addressing the whole of Year 13 on such matters as personal finances, mortgages and, crucially for some, the operation of the student loan.
We need to go back some 50 years, to when the notion was first aired.
Even then, a student graduating after three years would have been about a year's pay in arrears, even before commencing work.
Things are now considerably worse. During the present century, universities have proliferated, tuition fees have rocketed and the loan system has spiralled virtually out of control.
To give only one example, during the recent dispute it was pointed out that a doctor on graduating will "owe" at least two years' starting salary, and probably a good deal more. Graduates in other fields are in similar straits.
It has even been suggested that higher education has already become, in effect, two-tier.
After all, a student whose parents can afford the tuition fees up-front will always be better placed than one who has had to borrow from the outset.
My chief concern was always that a loan system would discourage able sixth-formers from poorer families from applying at all. But only a day or two ago there was a glimmer of hope.
It seems that the maintenance grant might be restored for students from disadvantaged families, albeit within fairly stringent limits.
This may one day impinge upon some of our future applicants.
Richard Merwood
Wain-a-Long Road, Salisbury
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