Case for pay body

The article "Pay structure delayed" (THES, October 6) clearly indicates the wide diversity of views in the universities and colleges regarding the necessary restructuring of negotiating bodies in higher education following the removal of the binary line.

While the Universities and Colleges Employers Association's offer to negotiate simultaneously with the Assocation of University Teachers on the one hand and the Assocation of University and College Lecturers and Natfhe on the other, marks a small step towards harmonisation between old and new universites, it does not come near to removing the inequities between the current pay scales and promotion opportunities for various categories of staff.

In this context and with the diversity of employer views it is clear that there is unlikely to be any overall preferred opinion.

This can only strengthen the case for an alternative to the discredited system of collective bargaining in higher education, namely an independent pay review body.

M. G. ROBERTS National secretary Association of University and College Lecturers