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For many years Oxford, Cambridge and London played a highly constructive role in helping to set up other universities. It is therefore deeply ironic that members of these universities are prominent among those calling for the establishment of a group of elite research institutions on one hand and "teaching-only" universities and departments on the other.

Is it not a serious abuse of academic freedom to use it to plead with the Government for the curtailment of the academic freedom of others? It is said we need to do this to remain "internationally competitive". I cannot speak for other disciplines, but in archaeology, foreigners are not competitors; they are people with whom we work.

Andrew Fleming

Reader in archaeology University of Wales Lampeter