V-cs redraft quality reply

The council of the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals last week tore up a draft letter to the Education Secretary, Gillian Shephard on the Higher Education Funding Council for England's proposals for quality assurance.

The draft (THES July 3), produced by CVCP officers, was considered at last Friday's meeting. It implicity assumed that the HEFCE scheme would go ahead but made a number of criticisms.

The CVCP council asked its officers to concentrate on objections to the scheme, in particular the control it proposed to give HEFCE over setting standards which it sees as a matter for the universities.

The council also endorsed the setting up of a working party to draft a its own scheme.