Aditya Chakrabortty (G2, 24 September) has reopened the season for "more means worse" critics of university expansion. This really betrays the naive elitism and conservative thinking of some labour economists. Just because occupations like policing and nursing used apprenticeship models of training 50 years ago does not mean that such models are still appropriate. Both occupations now need sophisticated skills in dealing with high technology in a diverse society.
In the UK, we no longer accept policing as a form of licensed thuggery or nursing as a version of domestic service. Medicine and law abandoned apprenticeships because they were no longer fit for purpose. In a modern economy, this is true of a growing range of occupations. Adam Smith recognised that the division of labour was a dynamic and evolutionary process: some of his successors might do well to remember this.
Professor Robert Dingwall
Nottingham. More...

By George Arnett. Despite a rise in the number of new full-time students, the drop in part-time enrolments continues to gather pace. The number of new students studying part time in 2011/12 dropped by 7.6 percent from the previous year, according to the latest data from the Higher education statistics agency (HESA). There were 278,545 first year part time students enroling in 2011/2012, a drop of 23,000 from the year previous and a fall of 65,900 from 2008/9. More...

By Hamish Macdonell. For many school-leavers, apprenticeships remain an unexplored option. So how can the government, education and business sectors improve the take-up of workplace training schemes? Why is it that it is harder to get on an apprenticeship with Rolls Royce or BAE Systems than it is to get ion an apprenticeship with Rolls Royce or BAE Systems than it is to get into Oxford or Cambridge? And why is it then, that many school leavers see apprenticeships as a poor alternative to university, even though they could end up in better jobs with less debt than their graduate counterparts? More...

By Richard Adams. The University of Athens, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Athens Polytechnic have been forced to halt all activities as a result of Greek ministry of education proposals to suspend unilaterally 1,655 university administrative workers. The impact on teaching, research, clinical work and international collaboration is unparalleled and the threat to higher education in Greece as a result of stringently imposed EU austerity measures is a cause of great concern far beyond Greece's shores. More...

By Richard Adams. Recovery in UK student numbers suggests increase in fees to £9,000 has not reduced appetite for full-time higher education. As freshers' week gets under way across the country, new figures show that the number of students accepted to study at UK universities has returned to the levels before tuition fees were raised to £9,000. More...