Rises and falls 1

In response to your story "25% wage hike for v-cs" (March 10), the Universities and Colleges Employers' Association argues that this increase is below average for chief executives in the public and private sector.

How many ex-vice-chancellors take up CEO posts in either the public or private sector? How many CEOs from the public and private sector are headhunted to run universities? I doubt that there are many examples, so these are two separate employment markets that should not be used for salary comparison.

On the other hand, I know several recent PhD students who, on getting their doctorates, left immediately for industry, where their pay and reward is substantially larger. This is a single market, and academic pay is falling further and further behind.

Jon May Sheffield