Geoffrey Copland asserts that this year's pay award is "innovative and reasonable" (Letters, THES , October 4). The Universities and Colleges Employers Association commissioned the 1999 Bett report into higher education pay and conditions, which said that pay was 20-30 per cent below that in equivalent sectors. The UCEA continued to offer the usual 3-4 per cent a year. I would hardly call this innovative or reasonable.
Keith Wright
Senior programme administrator
Liverpool John Moores University