Quality consideration 1

Whatever the merits or otherwise of metrics in research assessment, if it results in greater concentration of funding ("Treasury focus on top 10", October 13), this is sufficient in itself to reject the notion outright.

There is no doubt that the increasing concentration of research funds has denuded the resources available for teaching in research-driven subjects.

The closure of physics, chemistry, mathematics and even architecture in a range of universities is fundamentally due to lack of sufficient funding to engage academic staff of a high professorial calibre. It is rarely due to lack of students or the unattractiveness or intellectual difficulty of these subjects.

Further research funding concentration will surely result in an acceleration ofclosures, not to mentionthe impoverishment ofthe educational experience of hundreds of students.

Mike Goldstein
Kenilworth