A good deal on offer or a sellout? 3

The present pay deal looks more like an armistice than peace, but next time round there must be no harming of students. In view of the huge increase in administration and bureaucracy that top-down management has foisted on academics over the past few years, other methods may now be more effective, and one of these might indeed relate to my suggestion of "dumb insolence" (Opinion, March 24).

And if vice-chancellors are "stretched to the limits" could they not target job losses at those appointed to serve the increased bureaucracy, which is in direct conflict with the concordat to cut red tape?

Lewis Elton

University College London