Natfhe facts file

IN EXAMINING unionisation of academics (THES, May 16) you should get the figures right and compare like with like.

Within the total figure of 226,000 staff quoted in your article, new university and college of higher education academic staff in the institutions covered by Natfhe amount to about 40,000, 7,000 of whom are part-time. Natfhe does not seek to recruit staff in the old universities nor the Open University. Roughly one in two (not two in five) academic staff belong to Natfhe. Like the Association of University Teachers, our higher education membership is also climbing - by about 1,000 last year alone.

Liz Allen

Head of higher education Natfhe