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Congratulations to Susan Bassnett for raising the lid on the gap between vice-chancellors' and academics' pay (Soapbox, THES , March 1). Paying v-cs on average four to six times the salary of the lowest paid academic is far too much. In primary education those at the top get about twice as much as those at the bottom, in secondary and in sixth-form colleges it is about three times as much. Bringing the ratio down will not happen while pay at the bottom is fixed nationally and that at the top is fixed locally by university councils.

Richard Tuckett
University of Birmingham