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There is something else that university managers are often responsible for, in addition to the five "fatal flaws" that Sheffield Hallam University researchers claim can ruin departments. They are also responsible for imposing on their long-suffering staff management techniques (frequently useless) that are in the process of being abandoned by the corporate sector where they originated.

From conversations I have had with colleagues in a variety of UK universities I strongly suspect that increasing managerialism, with its attendant fads and inevitable bureaucracy, is one of the prime causes of poor staff morale. Consequently, I think most lecturing staff would prefer to forgo the Excellence Model in favour of the "Please just leave us alone to get on with our teaching and research" model.

David Hardman
London Metropolitan University