THE dilution of academic standards in this country - often driven by lesser colleges dreaming up silly courses to attract the revenue brought by barely-qualified students who would not have got near higher education a generation ago - has, surely, shot into overdrive with the introduction of a three-year BSc degree in motor sports by the University of Central Lancashire and Myerscough College in Preston.

True, you do not need a lot of brain to be attracted to this discipline.

Just take a glance at the average XR3i adolescent in a back-to-front baseball cap.

But how on earth can it be suggested that learning how to organise race meetings, rallies and motor-cycle and go-kart events is "higher education?"

It's a joke - so much so that I would not be surprised if a good deal of this three-year course includes Theory and Practice in Scalextric.

But, don't laugh - at the end of the day, you are paying for this nonsense.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.