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The surge in applications to the Institute for Learning and Teaching was fuelled by experienced staff and owes a lot to the original and final deadlines for fast-track application ("Scramble to join ILT boosts its funds", THES , August 9).

But there was another factor. The research assessment exercise submissions were finalised at the start of 2001, and before heads of departments put their whips away they cracked them in the direction of the ILT. A year earlier, publications were all important and teaching was a nuisance.

Hugh Fletcher
Queen's University, Belfast