20 years ago

Polytechnic and college directors and governors have paved the way for the establishment of a new single forum pay body when the Education Reform Bill becomes law. A meeting of more than 150 people representing the 29 polytechnics and 60 higher education colleges going into the new independent sector endorsed the recommendations for a new employers' negotiating body ... A task group ... put forward the idea of a single forum for negotiations covering all unions. Negotiations, it said, should be on a national basis ... with allowances for local variations.

Tuesday: In at 8.15 and curse the computer system as usual. The main university computer cannot be used between 8 and 9 while they dump the previous days' files ... At 10 I open my post and log in to look at my electronic mail. There is a message from California today, which I answer immediately. I am disappointed that so few people in this country use this quick and cheap form of communication. I will persist however because I am sure that, as more and more people find that they can reach me, it will spread. (Don's Diary by Peter Goodhew of the University of Surrey.)