THE Government needs to transform the ways university students are assessed. A report for a national Sunday newspaper has revealed that 45,000 students have been caught cheating in the past three years.

If obtaining a first-class degree is as simple as buying essays or even a PhD thesis online, or smuggling a mobile phone into your exams, then everyone suffers.

All those who have real ability, are honest and working hard, risk seeing potential employers treating their hard-earned qualifications with suspicion.

Though it may be unpopular to say so, I believe the decision that 50 per cent of all young people should go to university was a mistake.

All young people should have the opportunity to make the most of their abilities, regardless of class, race, gender, or the wealth of their parents, but the 50 per cent quota is not delivering that.

Many young people are studying for degrees when they would gain more benefit from vocational training.

We have a long history of undervaluing trades and engineering skills in the UK, which is why our manufacturing industry struggles along with only lawyers and bankers on company boards instead of engineers, as they have in Germany.

Christian Vassie, Blake Court, Wheldrake, York.