From The Times, 19th August:

STUDENTS will have to produce a lengthy dissertation in addition to their A levels under plans to break the logjam of applicants to top universities, The Times has learnt.

The work would be given a separate grade and made available to admissions tutors online to help them to distinguish the most able candidates.

A 4,000-word extended essay is a central element of plans being drawn up by Mike Tomlinson, the former Chief Inspector of Schools, for a diploma to replace A levels. He is due to present his final report to Charles Clarke, the Education Secretary, next month.

It seems that this will all take 10 years to bring about, but there are voices urging that the essay be brought in at once to help universities discriminate between a cluster of A grade candidates. Did I use the word 'discriminate'? Oh I do apologise. Discrimination is bad, isn't it? Or does it just mean being able to distinguish one person or thing from another?

Anyhow, what about this super-essay? 4,000 words - that's about 8 pages of typed A4. Not very long. Yes, bring it in! I shall enjoy writing one for my granddaughter in seven years' time. No, I don't mean that. But how easy it would be to cheat. Course-work is a nightmare as it is. As a fairly conscientious teacher I was often not quite sure whether the help I was giving was within the rules or not. So what about all the ambitious parents?

When I took a university entrance exam, there were lots of essays to be written, under exam conditions. And there was a general essay paper - three hours long, perhaps - with a list of subjects to choose from, all unrelated to Classics. I chose 'The Victorian Age', I remember, and as I knew very little about it, I approached it from the toys and books I had inherited from my grandmother's childhood, and the impressions I picked up from them. There was no way of cheating in that paper.

I was once told that in imperial times China chose its mandarins by means of an extended essay. Again, it wasn't written at leisure with reference books, friends and parents to consult, but the candidate was shut away with writing materials for a long time, even several days, and had to write out of his own brain.

Now that's the kind of super-essay that could well sort the women from the girls.