I READ and then re-read with increasing astonishment the recent column in the Evening Times by councillor Frank McAveety.

To think that the council leader can create japes from an outdated notion of woman’s role in society beggars belief.

In Mr McAveety’s world it seems that woman, like Ms Muirhead of the Gorbals, rely on the earning potential of men and that they don’t “break” some of the pay packet by a trip to the pub on the way home.

It is 2016, the notion that woman stay at home and do the housework while their husbands are working, earning and having a pint on the way home might be the ideal Mr McAveety seeks but it doesn’t reflect modern life.

With disappointment,

Michelle Stanners, Glasgow

READING about the record numbers of Scottish pupils securing university places (Evening Times online August 9), as a retired university lecturer Les, I don’t think it is an appropriate destination for every pupil who leaves school, and not even for those who do get to university.

We really do need to have a debate about establishing appropriate paths/ provision for different types of employment.

We also need to debate who is paying.

I do have some sympathy for the suggestion of in-house training and/or block release.

Giving practical experience of practical skills in an academic environment is difficult at best - much of what can be done is simulation. If employers were more engaged then more might be done.

And, while there are of course exceptions, my own experience was that graduates left with, at minimum, a good understanding of their discipline.

The gap tends to be between graduation and employment. Employers need to understand that when they employ a graduate they are employing potential.

To draw an analogy, a young graduate is like a lump of clay - it is for the employer to transform him/her into a useful object.

Alasdair Galloway, posted online

THERE needs to be a debate about how many Scots go to university and a demonstration that it is beneficial for them and our society otherwise why do we encourage so many to do a four year degree course?

Employers are a bit to blame for the “arms race” in degrees as well, rather than looking at the candidate’s aptitude and suitability for the job.

Dr Douglas McKenzie, posted online

FROM browsing the data and if my mathematics are correct, then nearly one in three of all new college and universities places it taken up by an EU student.

That's quite a statistic.

John Paterson, posted online