REDUCING entry grades to university for poorer students will not produce a more educated workforce in this very competitive world ("Universities told to slash entry grades for poorer students", The Herald, October 31). If you reduce the entry qualifications, do you then reduce the standards required to obtain a degree?

In my opinion, as a retired teacher with 40 years’ experience, the standard of national exams in schools has already been reduced substantially; for example, recently the pass mark in Higher maths was 35 per cent.

Dropping entry grades may well allow more students into university but may well lead to a higher dropout rate.

According to a recent article in The Herald the drop-out rate is already causing concern.

The only way to improve the chances of the bottom 20 per cent is to change the attitudes of the less privileged pupils. This is very difficult to do, but if we are serious we need to start in primary schools and reverse the negative attitude to educational progress which exists in many households.

Gordon Taylor,

14 Barra Avenue, Wishaw.

I NOTE your article on the report from academics from Durham University commissioned by the Scottish Funding Council.

Lowering academic standards for pupils from poorer backgrounds will merely exacerbate the under-performance of Scottish education and damage our international competitiveness further.

I absolutely support the assertion that context has an effect on academic performance. As a society it is incumbent on us to do all what we can for pupils with the desire to win coveted places in highly competitive universities. However, this should mean raising their performance with additional educational support and interventions at key stages of schooling; for example, Primary 2 and Second Year have been cited. Importantly, disadvantage is as much to do with social issues as it is economic. This means we need to address the attitude and aspiration of parents and carers and how they value educational opportunity. There is often a "geek" stigma associated with pupils who wish to work hard at school, sometimes leading to isolation from their peers. Too many universities are receiving funding for “Mickey Mouse” degrees which are poorly aligned to the country’s economic needs. This is devaluing university education by virtue of association.

At a base level getting behind the Barack Obama mantra of “yes we can” will do more to improve the life chances of the underprivileged than dampening down exam standards – the primary goal of which, I suggest, is to prolong the political life of a transitory Government.

Robert Gemmell,

14 Bramble Wynd, Port Glasgow.

WE agree more needs to be done to tackle gender-based violence (GBV) – not only in our universities (“Campus sex abuse cases not reported”, The Herald, October 27), but in our workplaces and communities.

Universities recognise they have a key role to play in tackling GBV on campus and in wider society, and as a socially-progressive institution the University of Strathclyde is at the forefront of this endeavour.

Strathclyde is the pilot site for the sector-wide Equally Safe in Higher Education project – a Scottish Government-funded initiative to challenge gender-based violence affecting staff and students across Scotland’s university campuses.

The two-year project will see the development of a toolkit which will be freely available to all higher education institutions, supporting the sector in undertaking research, in prevention, early intervention, policy, campus safety and staff development.

Through the collaboration of staff, students and external partners the project has, to date:

• Collected data on GBV on Scottish university campuses and identified best practice,

• Created a new GBV Employee Policy,

• Offered GBV first responder staff training as part of its partnership agreement with Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis Centre,

• Launched a new Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis Centre campus drop-in service offering support and information to staff and students,

• Offered GBV by-stander training to staff and students to help them understand the impact of harassment, abuse and violence and know what to do to stop it,

• Launched a free, online course, open to all, called Understanding Violence Against Women: Myths and Realities, to increase awareness of this global challenge and look at ways to address it.

Universities in Scotland are acutely aware of their duty of care towards students and staff. My colleagues and I across the Scottish sector take GBV extremely seriously. We are keen to ensure our universities develop a consistent approach to gender-based violence and fully contribute to the Scottish Government’s long term aims of preventing and eventually eliminating GBV.

The project will provide universities with more tools to free their campuses – and Scotland – from the scourge of GBV for everyone.

Anni Donaldson,

Knowledge Exchange Fellow & Project Lead Equally Safe in Higher Education,

University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.