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The "dogma" that high-quality teaching can only be done by serious researchers should be abandoned, according to the president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

Sir Ron Oxburgh, also rector of Imperial College and member of the Dearing Committee, said such dogma led to "second-rate university research" which, if "done to order by people who have no real aptitude or enthusiasm for it, is a waste of time, money and paper".

Speaking at the launch of this year's festival of science to be held at Birmingham University, Sir Ron said that the dogma, "reinforced by the methodology of the funding councils, is driving us towards a university system in which there is unacceptable pressure on every academic staff member to do research whether or not they want to do so and whether or not they are any good at it.

"It is my impression that in the 1980s even in the most prestigious universities not many more than half the academic staff would have been regarded as fully 'research active' by today's criteria."