Who says higher education has become a cynical commercial operation, churning out students as if from a sausage machine? Not just Laurie Taylor, it seems. Staff at Nottingham Trent University have suggested that it cannot be coincidence that Neil Gorman, the vice-chancellor, used to work at Mars in pet food research, while Francesca Fowler, the head of human resources, was poached from the meat-pie maker Pork Farm Bowyers.