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Even the most rightwing, business-serving government would surely not consider paying companies to relabel their in-house training as university degree programmes, as the Council for Industry and Higher Education proposes ("Business wants taxpayer to underwrite costs of bespoke foundation degrees", THES , May 23).

The proposal seems inconsistent with CIHE's website statement that UK higher education is efficient, effective and responsive to changing needs but seriously underfunded. It is more like a cynical ploy to help government reach its 50 per cent access target by 2010, diverting money from higher education in the process.

Catherine Fritz
University of Hull