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You misleadingly engineered a story suggesting that I favour cutting the volume of research ("Research to be cut, Newby says", THES , June 28.) Your reporter did this by incorrectly attributing to me a quote based on an extract from the Higher Education Funding Council for England's response to the House of Commons science and technology committee's report on the research assessment exercise.

Had we spoken, I would have made the point that because UK research is in deficit, the volume will have to reduce unless funding increases substantially.

It is this latter point that I would have emphasised. We need more investment in research, not less.

Howard Newby
Chief executive
Higher Education Funding Council for England