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Andrew Oswald says that the meaning of the word "university" is being despoiled by policy-making ("A victim of vocabulary", THES , May 24).

Reasserting the university as a research-based organisation, he laments the erosion of standards as unlettered hordes invade. But is not the concept of the university simply being extended? Universities are about knowledge: its discovery (research), validation (through the disciplines) and dissemination (from the lecture to the journal article). Research and teaching can be reconciled. Oswald links universities and democracies. No democracy can develop if its population is untrained to think.

Mike Newby
University of Plymouth