Contractual errors

Your article "Contract staff laid off in preparation for EU law" (October 8) misquotes me. I do not believe there is a "culture of casualisation" in higher education. There will be a dramatic reduction in the number of fixed-term contracts by 2006 and beyond and proper procedures for terminations.

Many institutions are planning for this and many employees are benefiting. You should talk to some of them for balance. But some contracts for this type of work will continue to end, not because of European Union laws but for the reasons many have always ended - short-term research funding or changes in student demand, for example. To claim that these contracts are ending because of EU regulations is simply not true.

Declan Leyden
Assistant director
Universities and Colleges Employers Association