Restoring standards

G.R. Evans asks: "Who in teaching and research is going to be willing to give time to the accreditation of courses on the European model?"(Letters, 9 April). I suspect there will be no shortage of volunteers from those many scholars who are appalled by the palpable dumbing down of academic standards in UK higher education, evidenced by the hundreds of pages submitted to the ongoing parliamentary inquiry on the subject. Yes, there will be some loss of institutional autonomy, but in disciplines where programmes are already professionally accredited, this will not be noticed. As for the rest (including my own), the price will be worth paying to shield academics from managerial pressures, thus restoring the international reputation of the sector.

Geoffrey Alderman, University of Buckingham.