NEW Labour has continued to destroy educational standards (“Bid to axe top academics sparks global protest”, News, last week). It would be better to close those colleges granted “university status” to offer degrees in skateboarding, surfing or pop singing. That nearly every town has a “university” is an abuse of the term that once denoted, and still denotes, a body of scholars with research facilities.

Ian McLean, Storrington, West Sussex

Outdated Ofsted
Glaringly missing from Ed Balls’s education list of “slashing quango spending” is the most costly of all of the quangos, Ofsted (“Balls targets school clubs in £500m cuts”, News last week). Many educators would welcome its abolition. The argument that it is needed to ensure accountability is specious because the existence of a competitive market, in which public league tables play a crucial part, fulfils this role.

David Ganderton, Sale, Cheshire

Third degree
Lord Mandelson derides senior academics who protest at the proposed university job losses that lecturers “think they have a right to be set in aspic”. Could he please remind us of the contract period for his peerage?

John Johnston, Eye Green, Cambridgeshire

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