In brief 4

The United Kingdom spends about 1 per cent of gross domestic product on higher education compared with 3 per cent in the United States ("Show us the money, Mr Brown", THES , April 12). Both spend about 1 per cent on publicly funded higher education. In the US, the rest comes from the private sector. Universities do not need more taxpayers' money but to be released from being in the public sector.

Andrew Oswald
Professor of economics
Warwick University