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Vice-chancellors' pay is rightly a matter for monitoring and public comment ("Union fury as v-cs pocket 6% pay rise", THES , February 7). Comment, however, should be based on proper comparisons.

Your headline implied that the v-cs' rise was comparable with 3.5 per cent for all other staff. But the pay rise for our staff in the past financial year was 5-6 per cent. This is because 2 per cent more is invariably given above the pay settlement as a result of incremental drift and promotions.

V-cs therefore took exactly the same pay rise as the staff had in the previous year.

Eric Thomas
Vice-chancellor
University of Bristol