Flower power

Warwick University was looking particularly pristine in honour of the HEFCE visit. Sprinklers played on the smooth lawns and the bedding plants stood neatly to attention in weed-free beds. "You wouldn't think we were the ones who had the country's leading course in landscape design," Peter Knight of the University of Central England was heard to mutter. "Next thing you know there'll be HEFCE top slicing for garden maintenance."