WELL, the exam results are out!

I have not seen any of the "difficult" exam papers taken this year, but it must be realised that however challenging they may have been, and regardless of the rigour with which examiners were instructed to mark them, the grade boundaries have been set at a very senior level, at a meeting which the rank and file marker never attends. It must also be stressed that this happens every year, with every paper. Grade boundaries are therefore fluid.

Of far greater concern is the unprecedented number of unconditional offers which university applicants have received. I read in the national press that some year 13s have slackened their efforts, and have in extreme cases even dropped out of school altogether without taking the examinations, confident that a place at "uni" (nauseating word!) is already theirs. This, of course, will have had a deleterious effect on their schools' exam performance and ranking in the league tables, which still appears to be the only issue that matters. From your coverage of local performance it is quite clear that our own schools have done very significantly better than some others elsewhere in the country.

In my day, as they say, an unconditional offer was almost unheard of, and given only to an exceptional candidate who was sure to achieve excellent results, and whom the university considered to be an undoubted future asset. However, higher education nowadays is actually heading towards something like a crisis, with certain institutions in open and unashamed competition to attract as many students as possible and pocket those tuition fees, resulting, as I have also read elsewhere, in a "race to the bottom". I very much doubt whether many (if any) of our own year 13 leavers will be attending an establishment of the kind indicated above.

Richard Merwood

Salisbury