Expenses claim

Lincoln Allison remembers when senior academics and vice-chancellors led a relatively ascetic existence and compares it with today when many v-cs are paid salaries similar to those of chief executives in industry (“Spared no expense”, Features, 2 April).

Allison sees this as a regrettable but necessary development but misses a key point. When top figures in the academy were, mostly, of an ascetic frame of mind, they were also academics with a track record of research and publication. I’m not sure that this applies to that many current-day v-cs.

Keith Flett
London