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US academics and students may benefit from shortened academic years and time to reflect, but please, let us give a thought to the thousands of stretched "non-academic" staff in the US who receive no such luxuries ("Winter holidays warm hearts of US faculty", January 6).

I had an illuminating encounter on a boat trip from Boston to Provincetown last year when a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student counsellor told me that she was the envy of friends in other sectors for her 20 days' annual leave.

I hesitated to inform her that for a similar role with comparable experience she might get 30 days in some British institutions.

Debra Henson
Careers adviser
Nottingham University