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Lincoln Allison remembers when senior academics and vice-chancellors led a relatively ascetic existence and compares it with today when many v-cs are paid salaries similar to those of chief executives in industry (¡°Spared no expense¡±, Features, 2 April).

Allison sees this as a regrettable but necessary development but misses a key point. When top figures in the academy were, mostly, of an ascetic frame of mind, they were also academics with a track record of research and publication. I¡¯m not sure that this applies to that many current-day v-cs.

Keith Flett
London