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Richard Partington is right ("Unregulated KIS data overload will baffle, not enlighten, students", 22/29 December). Of the many points he makes about Key Information Sets, there's an enduring fundamental flaw: how can statistical evidence measure wildly diverse institutions? Answer: it can't. I'm happy (well, not all that happy) to be a voice crying in the wilderness, but the powers that be must surely realise that allowing performing-arts institutions to opt out of the new competitive funding regime shows the reality of that flaw.

Mark Featherstone-Witty, Founding principal/CEO, Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts