Praise for the engine room

Times Higher Education's People pages suggest a world of fast-moving go-getters - with the exception, over on the right, of a lone deceased colleague whose dedication to their discipline and students got in the way of being on the other side of the fold and whose wonderful work is now praised when it's too late for them to hear.

Maybe it's time for THE to recognise the great majority of people who don't chase after big research grants or the latest high-level management vacancy. The counsellor who advises students, the technician who leads workshops, the administrator who replies to tweets from prospective undergraduates, the inspirational lecturer content to stay in the same job instead of chasing promotion elsewhere. These people keep our universities running; we shouldn't have to wait until they're dead to hear about them.

Jonathan Baldwin, University of Dundee