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I have some sympathy with David Richards' concern about the growth in temporary teaching fellowships (Letters, 30 June).

However, I am mystified by his assumption that only those who take up traditional lecturerships are "passionate" about their discipline, or that loving one's subject and teaching it are somehow mutually exclusive. Surely a love for one's subject goes hand in hand with a wish to share it with others.

I love my subject; that is why I choose to teach it, and why I enjoy my job as a (permanent) teaching Fellow. Enlightened institutions recognise that academia needs both those committed primarily to research and those who primarily practise a discipline through teaching.

Nick Jones, Teaching Fellow, University of York