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Unlike the head of the Russell Group, I fail to see why it is inevitable that "a lecturer in engineering" should "command a different salary from a lecturer in history, even within the same university' ("Pay set for local free-for-all", February ).

Call me old fashioned, but I also fail to see why some vice-chancellors receive a salary that is 40 times greater than the annual income of a state pensioner. Excessive pay for the few at the expense of the many undermines social solidarity and disfigures our nation.

Robert Page
Reader in democratic socialism and social policy
University of Birmingham