One can only admire Professor Buckland for his stance on poor standards in students.I can recall one Professsor of History at Central Lancs. University welcoming mature students in his group and saying that younger undergraduates were the bane of his life as he had to spend part of the first year teaching them basic history that they should have learned at school.
Perhaps it is time to recognise that entry to university should be tightened up, not made easier,otherwise degrees will increasingly become not worth the paper they are written on. Instead of turning polytechnics into Universities they should have kept them and encouraged less academically gifted youngsters to learn a trade. We are so behind the rest of Europe where education is concerned.
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road