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Two weeks ago (THES, October 14), we had a vice chancellor of a new university telling us that universities were about teaching and learning. Full stop.

Last week, a pro vice chancellor asserts that it's all about customer satisfaction. Clearly the one is running a sixth-form college while the other is limbering up for a directorship with McDonalds.

Will they both ultimately realise that if they do not include research in the menu, all their customers will get is an insipid rehash of last year's ideas from people who have not been given time to think and that they might go elsewhere for something more substantial?

P. M. WETHERILL Alma Road Stockport.