Is honesty a policy that pays off? 2

Erik Ringmar is to be admired for his honesty in informing prospective London School of Economics students that they can expect to be taught by PhD students and not by the experts in their field of study. But he did not give them the full story.

The LSE is driven by inadequate state funding to behave like a business. Therefore, UK students are unlikely to gain entry because foreign students bring in treble the income. The students doing the teaching are paid a fraction of the going rate. The academic staff are required to bring in income from the research assessment exercise and business. The result is lower standards.

Most of the students are drawn from European and Third-World elites for whom an LSE degree is a passport to a well-paid career. Education comes second.

But the more academics stand up and expose the results of government policy, the sooner education will get back on to the agenda.

Patrick Brady

London