Cornish left in the cold

Now that Exeter University's attempt to provide a University for Cornwall has failed, feelings of terrible disappointment have given way to deep anger. "Regional credit accumulation" (THES, March 13) is not the solution to the next generations of young Cornish people's problem. What Exeter and Plymouth universities and Falmouth College of Art and Design may have to offer in Cornwall can never amount to the full choice of subjects provided by a proper university.

Every young person should have the right to university education within 50 miles of home. Most British students have several choices of university within a 50-mile radius, but Cornish students have none: Exeter University is 110 miles from Penzance, Plymouth is 85 miles away.

Under these circumstances, who can blame them and their parents for feeling left out on a limb? Abandoned as they are, tuition fees should be waived for them to attend a university of their choice, and a maintenance grant should be provided for them as inhabitants of the most disadvantaged peninsula in Britain.

Mike Weaver

Linacre College, Oxford