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In the news story ¡°Plymouth defends ¡®?150K spend on seven chairs¡¯?¡± (timeshigher?education.co.uk, 20 September), David Coslett, Plymouth University¡¯s deputy vice-chancellor, argues that new graduation furniture was crucial to graduation ceremonies that attracted more than 25,000 students and guests to the city, injecting ¡°around ?700,000 worth of additional tourism income¡± into the local economy. (The university later clarified that the cost of the chairs was ?95,000.)

I think the tourism income argument is entirely reasonable. I¡¯m not sure that my family would have attended either of my graduation ceremonies had they not been fairly confident about the presence of fancy chairs.

Martyn Amos
Via timeshighereducation.co.uk