Sir Martin Rees, incumbent president of the Royal Society and Astronomer Royal, tried to incite anarchy among university officials who are too obsessed with the research assessment exercise and university management at a conference on the competitiveness of the UK last week.
Academics are compensated for not earning as much as they might in the private sector by quality of life and independence, he said, but too much concern with management is making academics feel like subordinates or employees and they will not stay. "The anarchic system allowed people to forgo high pay and dedicate themselves to an institution in spite of it,"
he said.