What are you worth? 1

According to Peter Smith in "Top cop gets 20K more than professor" (May 12), Lecturer A in the table is "broadly similar to a teacher of five years' experience" and Lecturer B is equivalent to a teacher on the upper pay scale.

This does not seem right. A lecturer is likely to have a first-class degree and a PhD, teach, supervise and assess students up to PhD level, find funding for, manage and conduct research, write learned papers and help develop curricula, teaching strategies and assessment methods. Many lecturers will often have a professional qualification and experience.

Conditions of employment for lecturers and teachers are markedly different.

Leave entitlement of six weeks for lecturers compares unfavourably with that of teachers. Teachers also have more scope to enhance earnings via allowances - teaching and learning responsibility payments and so on. Smith sees a "broad" comparability, I don't.

Jim Balfour
Heriot-Watt University