Managers accountable to no one 3

Students at Luton University have also found their courses interrupted because staff have been obliged to take voluntary redundancy. This includes many staff in the faculty of health and social studies this year and economics lecturers last year.

This has made economics and sociology provision Heath Robinson-like. One module was taught last year by someone without even an undergraduate qualification in economics and no economist was available to supervise final-year dissertations. Politics staff have taught sociology modules under protest.

Meanwhile, the concerns raised in the Quality Assurance Agency's report on the prompt return of student work have not been addressed ("Luton told to raise its game in quality row", THES, August 2). Last academic year it sometimes took two weeks for handed-in assignments to reach academic staff. This led to a turn-round period of more than a month.

The QAA reported that Luton was keen to "support... the honours challenge". There was little sign of that last year.

Ann Bousfield
Ex-politics lecturer
Luton University

Mark Clapson
Ex-reader in history
Luton University