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Headhunters like Graham MacKenzie of Saxon Bampfylde, make their money by charging their clients a percentage of the remuneration package for anyone they succeed in getting hired. So they have a vested interest in talking up salaries. Mr MacKenzie justifies the high salaries paid to vice chancellors by comparing them with the managing directors of medium-sized private sector companies - an argument apparently being used with some success on boards of university governors and remuneration committees.

Who is making the same comparison with private-sector middle management to raise the salaries of university heads of department? Certainly not the v-cs themselves. Not Saxon Bampfylde who do not work in this area. Not university personnel departments. Over to the lecturers' unions. Maybe they could kick off by using Mr MacKenzie's basis of comparison with the private sector to press for a basic professorial package starting at Pounds 45,000 plus a car and private health assurance.

H. PAUL

Sandycoombe Road, Twickenham, Middlesex