Readers' letters: Use AI to radically reformulate the university model

Instead of relying on rigid, mass-produced lecture structures, AI can deliver highly personalised, adaptive curricula tailored to the unique strengths, needs, and paces of individual students. Simultaneously, by automating routine administrative tasks and grading burdens, technology can free academics to focus on what truly matters: high-value human mentorship, critical thinking, and collaborative research.

Furthermore, AI-driven platforms can democratise access, transforming traditional universities from exclusive gatekeepers of fixed four-year degrees into dynamic hubs for flexible, lifelong learning. This shift allows institutions to remain resilient against ongoing economic constraints while drastically expanding their global reach.

If Scotland’s universities are to survive, they must move past defensive cost-cutting. By embracing AI, we can transition into a sustainable, forward-looking educational ecosystem.

Doug Clark, Currie, Edinburgh

Begging bowl

Thousands of members of the University and College Union (UCU) are going to take part in unprecedented levels of strikes and industrial action this month (your report, 19 September).

Nathan Morrison the Scotland official for UCU seems to think that more money from Scottish taxpayers is the answer. Dundee University had previously received £40 million from the Scottish government. Oh no they didn’t, it was from Scottish taxpayers.

Scotland has 18 recognised universities and ten colleges so cuts to the number of institutions and staff are now essential for survival.

British students domiciled in Scotland get free university and college funding paid for by – you have guessed it – Scottish taxpayers.

But what about foreign students who became a critical source of funding for these institutions? Non-UK student numbers have fallen by over 10,000 and with fees typically ranging from £10,000 to £30,000 and £50,000 for specialised degrees per year something has to give.

For far too long university and college staff have led a sheltered life with high salaries but this now needs to change and staff and pensions cut to affordable levels as well as reducing or amalgamating colleges and universities.

Strikes by UCU? That will just lead to fewer foreign and English students paying full fees. If the Scottish government had any courage it would tell UCU the facts of life and that its begging bowl will remain empty.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Ultra vires

Why is the Scottish Parliament holding yet another debate on independence (your report, 21 September) when there are so many more pressing issues affecting hard-working families?

I thought Holyrood might become more of an adult debating chamber when the new presiding officer was appointed, but apparently not. As the constitution is a reserved matter and the UK government has thankfully not conceded to the annual demand for an independence referendum, surely the presiding officer should have struck down the debate as ultra vires? Technically, beyond the parliament’s powers, but in reality to help the reduction in greenhouse gases by stopping all the hot air the debate will produce from escaping!

Perhaps we could move on to more pressing matters like supporting the extraction of our own gas from our own North Sea to supplement demand and stop importing liquified natural gas on smelly polluting tankers, contributing to global warming, and losing out on jobs and tax revenue from the North Sea?

As we move towards winter, every day the UK and Scottish governments delay approving gas extraction is a day lost in topping up our low gas storage reserves, and a day when more jobs and taxes will be lost from the North Sea.

Brian Barbour, Haddington, East Lothian

Registered charity

When you see SNP MSPs receiving handsome salaries for hapless performance a question arises. Is the Scottish Parliament a registered charity?

Colin Hamilton, Edinburgh

Wrong direction

Dennis Canavan (Letters, 21 September) suggests that to have any chance of electoral success, Labour must go down the well-trodden “independence” path.

Labour has not learnt. Simply put, independence is not a vote-winner. The SNP has ably demonstrated over the last 20 years that there are far more important issues for Scots, all of which have been ignored.

Granted, this theoretical desire for some kind of half independence whilst chained to Europe has still won the SNP power but it is now subject to the law of diminishing returns and must end soon.

If Labour wants to continue losing, apeing the SNP is a guaranteed way to do it. Scotland needs to be taken in a fresh direction. The SNP, Greens and Labour are all going the wrong way.

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Labour’s fall

Ex-Labour MP Dennis Canavan is under the usual mass delusion of members past and present of The Party Of Entitlement that its abrupt decline and fall in Scotland is down to New Labour.

No Dennis, it was down to successive post-war generations growing up in even worse actual poverty than their parents or grandparents, seeing decades of supposed left-wing governments making things not one bit nicer – except of course for fellow members of the “Labour movement” and their family, which were more akin to a Freemasonry that ran Scotland as a feudal fiefdom to despoil as they pleased.

Scottish Labour has long been the party of ‘know your place’, even more than the Tories. Finally, a generation came with a hatred for the hypocrisy and self-aggrandisement it stood for behind its pious platitudes, and resolved to exterminate it at the ballot box. The only trouble was some of those self-seekers simply jumped ship to the SNP and that old song by The Who rang out once again: meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Mark Boyle, Johnstone, Renfrewshire

Single malts

Alistair Carmichael’s article, “Why Labour’s redefining of ‘single malt’ for English whisky is a threat to Scotch” (17 September), gives the mistaken impression that the UK government has weakened standards for Scotch Whisky.

We have not.

Scotch Whisky is a national treasure and one of our largest food and drink exports. The UK government has a clear track record of supporting the industry by securing deals with key export markets such as the US, China and India. The previous government allowed US tariffs to cost Scotch whisky £600 million in lost exports.

The English Whisky GI leaves Scotch Whisky’s protections and production requirements entirely unchanged.

The English Whisky GI was proposed by industry and assessed against the statutory criteria set out in law. This is the same process through which Welsh Whisky received a similar GI in 2023; I note that there were no complaints then.

Furthermore, there is no one UK-wide legal definition of “single malt”. Scotch Whisky, Irish Whiskey and Single Malt Welsh Whisky are all separately protected, with definitions that reflect their own unique traditions and production methods.

For Single Malt Scotch Whisky, mashing, fermentation, and distillation must take place at a single distillery in Scotland. For both English Whisky and Welsh Whisky, distillation must take place at a single site, while mashing, fermentation and production may take place elsewhere These different methods all reflect individual, traditional practice that dates back decades.

Recognising a rich tradition from one nation of our United Kingdom does not come at the expense of others. English Whisky can stand proudly alongside Scotch, Welsh and Irish whiskies.

We should have every confidence that demand for Scotch will continue to thrive.

Stephen Morgan, Food Security and Rural Affairs Minister, London

Palestinian state

Yesterday marked one year since the UK government recognised Palestine as a state . A country that had no border and no effective government. It entrenched Hamas and removed any reason for them to negotiate.

Conditions agreed by the Palestinian Authority included: 1. No role for Hamas in any future Palestinian state; 2. Palestinian Authority to recognise the right of Israel to exist in peace and security; 3. A commitment to de-militarise and hold general elections; 4, A pledge to abolish the payments to the families of “martyrs”. None of these conditions have been met.

The US Department of State has recently re-introduced sanctions against the Palestinian Authority because it continues to glorify acts of terrorism in public announcements and school textbooks.

Will the UK government copy this stance? Don't hold your breath.

Lewis Finnie, Edinburgh

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