MR Derrick is a determined and talented letter writer, but his recent missives (ViewPoints December 5 and December 13) on university applicants and on apprentices were misleading.

Of university applicants, Mr Holt’s caricature that school leavers (and mature students) apply to Higher Education “in the belief that a degree is a guaranteed passport to highly paid work” cannot be substantiated.

For what it’s worth, my decades of experience as a college lecturer have revealed again and again that university applicants work very hard, giving much thought to what they want to study and why. None in my experience have ever presumed that a university education “is a guaranteed passport to highly paid work”.

Since 2008, applicants have become increasingly aware of the rise in graduate unemployment. Over the applicant season 2011-2012, the University and College Admissions Service recorded a decline by 12 per cent in applications, with a steeper decline predicted for 2012-2013.

Nor should it be thought that universities are little more than finishing schools for the better off, as Mr Holt seems to be suggesting. UK universities are vital engines for the UK economy and for the enduring cultural and economic structures which stem from both the sciences and the humanities.

Cherish what we have built up, Mr Holt, and contemplate from your house the medical teaching and research which take place daily and nightly at the nearby Oxford Medical School.

Yes, apprenticeships are also essential and require a constructive partnership between colleges and companies, with Government support, which remains patchy. Oxford and Cherwell Valley College has recently celebrated the arrival of its 1,000th apprentice. Many more will be needed, now and in future.

BRUCE ROSS-SMITH, Bowness Avenue, Headington