Geoffrey Alderman, the former Middlesex University quality chief, has let slip a fascinating insight into university management in the Jerusalem Post last week.
"Polytechnics did not enjoy academic autonomy... and whatever academic freedom existed in them was qualified, and subject to a stark managerialist approach designed to counter any notion of academic self-governance. I speak from experience because in 1994 I moved from the University of London to a former polytechnic (Middlesex), where it was made clear to me that the managers (of whom I was one) ruled."