Daddy Cool: Jeremy Watson | This year, those who want to go to university have encountered the perfect storm.

THERE are many stupid things I have done in my life, but one of the stupidest was not going to university in the days when the state paid, no questions asked, and you did not end your undergraduate days deep in debt. I was offered a place at university, I was even guaranteed a job at the end of my degree course. But I chose the life of a newspaper trainee instead, with regular money in my pocket and a career in an industry in which a university education was not considered a prerequisite. While

Now that I have children applying for university, I realise how lucky my generation was. It was competitive to get in even in the less frenetic 1970s, but everyone pretty much ended up where they wanted to be.

This year, those who want to go to university have encountered the perfect storm. Under 13 years of Labour government, universities have been ordered to widen access to children from less privileged families, so fewer children with top grades – even those with straight As and who have the academic ability to thrive on a degree course – will succeed in getting the places they want. Cash-starved universities have chased income brought by foreign students, increasing the pressure on limited places. Now the economic refugees of the recession are also ratcheting up the strain. Adult applications to Scotland's universities are at record levels as would-be mature students seek a temporary shelter from the financial shockwaves.

This means that up to one in five of this year's applicants may not get a place at all, and many of them will be youngsters aged 17 or 18 and on the threshold of their future. How disappointing, after all the effort they have put in, only to close the door in their faces. Even those who do manage to land a place at the establisment of their choice will end up thousands of pounds in debt to aa government-backed loans company that charges savage rates of interest.

Tony Blair's vision of getting half of school-leavers into higher education was a well-meaning but ultimately ludicrous goal when university finances were never going to sustain such an increase. It's difficult to explain to my daughters and their friends that, despite their hard work, they could miss out on all they've worked towards.

Such a flawed system does not serve students, their parents, universities or the future of the country as a whole – which depends on the very best getting the very best education – well.

This article was originally published in Scotland on Sunday on 28 February 2010