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University lecturers are subject to increasing surveillance of teaching and research standards.

But what confidence can we have in a government that plagiarises material presented as original and recent as in the case of the "dodgy dossier" on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction? Even a first-year undergraduate cannot justify plagiarism on the grounds that it was accurate.

Prime minister Tony Blair has said that no one would have reacted if Downing Street had "sourced" the material.

This reflects the government's contempt for values at the heart of university research and teaching.

Judith Okely
University of Hull