Too many profs

Roy Kingham and Richard Andrews (THES, December 1) "doth protest too much" about my dismissal of a professorship being created in a further education college (my letter, November 24).

In allocations of rank and salary to grades of employment in the public service, these attach to the post, not the man.

It is fairly obvious that if FE college heads of department and university senior lecturers (at least their equal) assume the title of professor, it will eventually become worthless. It is the scarcity element in its conferment that creates value.

T. C. SIMMONDS, Chelsea Cloisters, Sloane Avenue, London SW3