I'm with BEagle on this. But then that's not surprising since we were contemporaries, as undergrads, on the same UAS. He speaks with authority as he went back later as a QFI.
'Training was always geared towards teaching students to fly and to aspire to a career in the RAF. But their degrees came first.'
How right. After reading the Times article, I looked at the RAF's UAS website and the Wikipedia entry. They don't tell you, but UAS were formed in the 1930s as RAFVR training units, with the object of exposing university students to the Service, and RAF in particular, ethos: on the basis that these people would go on to be in positions of influence in society as civil professionals. The 'carrot' was to teach them to fly, and the methodology for this was exactly the same as (then) EFTS. Fortunately, some of these chaps carrried on with their flying and formed the cadre of early 2WW pilots.
When I joined in 1969, our unit was about 90% RAFVR Cadet Pilots and the rest a few APOs on University Cadetships, plus 'parented' Medics. As a result of the 1970 decision by the Service Chiefs to make the default standard of Officer Entry those with degrees, the composition of UAS was gradually skewed, and, of course, there was a greater number of ancillary (non-aircrew) cadetship persons 'parented ' by each unit.
It is a shame that successive financial squeezes have so changed the purpose and ethos of UAS. The flying syllabus is much more restricted: I wonder how many manage to work their way throught the syllabus as far as PFB (the syllabus for which has also been downgraded) these days?
Did we drink? Of course. A lot. Work hard, play hard. But we managed our degrees and our flying too.
Most of the VRs in my intake either subsequently joined the RAF full time (I did) or went off to BOAC/BEA.
Amongst my contemporaries are (retired!) senior officers, (retired) BA pilots, and an eminent aviation lawyer and judge; two of us are graduate tps, and still working: where did we go wrong? Hang on, we're still flying!
I hope that in another 40 years' time a current UAS student today will be able to look back with fond memories and feel, like I do, that this was where it all started.