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At the risk of resembling the sad man in William Congreve's The Way of the World who leaves messages for himself at the coffee house, I'd like to point out that my gloomy response to Ron Barnett's Higher Education Academy plenary was partly manufactured in the magazine's cutting room (Letters, 16 July).

Perhaps it was idle of me to imagine that we might derive hope from the development of knowledge in the minds of tutors and students, or that there is any chance of influencing public debate by arguing that in this process lies the real idea of the university.

David Roberts, John Henry Newman chair, Newman University College.