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Although Felipe Fern¨¢ndez-Armesto writes authoritatively on the merits of high tuition fees in relationship to a positive student experience ("Reassuringly expensive", 30 August), he fails to explicitly identify the University of Notre Dame, his place of employ, as a Catholic university.

The high-fee model he discusses is consistent with Catholic schools across the US. Such institutions advertise a particular religious-based educational experience that includes low student-to-staff ratios, rigorous admission standards and well-manicured lawns.

As a private school, Notre Dame is not required to conform to governmental regulation and as a religious institution it has not-for-profit status. Should gentle readers believe that US students happily equate higher fees with higher value, allow me to suggest that it is disingenuous to conflate public and private, profit and not-for-profit, and secular and religious universities.

Colyn Wohlmut, Learning resources manager, London Contemporary Dance School