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As a former academic who has recently qualified as a secondary school teacher and examiner, it is dispiriting to mark GCSE and A-level scripts considered "top grade" by exam boards' criteria (Letters, February 20). It comes as no surprise, therefore, that a university in the Southeast felt it could entice prospective undergraduates with the "text-style" advertisement "UgtWotIttaks?"

Having received a state education and being of working-class origins, I support policies to widen participation. But if this intellectual standard is all we expect of the brightest of our future workforce, then it is hardly surprising that the UK compares unfavourably with other countries in international education league tables.

Fiona Kisby
Stevenage