Doing the sums 2

The interests of business, centring as they do on maximising shareholders' profits, have nothing in common with those embodied by Western universities in their role of creating and fostering a nation's intellectual capital - namely, the disinterested pursuit of knowledge and the nurturing of minds that are open, critical, deeply informed and capable of fulfilling their owners while enhancing the lives of others (whether in business, public service, voluntary work, artistic creation or simply in everyday life).

While the proposed "business-facing" universities compete to satisfy what business thinks are its needs, let us hope that others will carry on reminding the world that products and profits are not enough to make our lives worth living.

Derek Rowntree
Lower Tadmarton, Oxon.