YOU imply that Bolton Institute's application to be able to use a university title has been rejected (THES, February 6). This is not the case. The Quality Assurance Agency has submitted advice to the secretary of state in confidence. The secretary of state is considering this advice and in due course presumably will make his views known to the Privy Council. Staff governors are right to be concerned about the way in which the QAA arrived at its decision and to question why, in the process, a majority of members of its degree-awarding powers committee resigned.
R. Oxtoby Principal, Bolton Institute