Novel nonsense

So, "Dull Birmingham pays £100,000 to make itself more interesting" (September 17) to the same consultants who market the low-grade TV channel Five?

This is another case of overpaid administrators wasting money on a cosmetic change that obscures doing anything about the teaching and resource problems that afflict provincial universities.

My career as a visiting research fellow and assistant lecturer at Birmingham ended some years ago because of budget cuts. The idea that this PR nonsense will solve anything is all too typical of the elitist management inertia prevalent at the university. It's like a scene out of a David Lodge novel.

Larry Isles
Eastbourne