Leading article: Pay rises all round

A welcome market free-for-all is taking place in university pay. The introduction of a single salary spine, combined with the ability of universities to strike local deals, means that minimum lecturer salaries will rise by 8.1 per cent at Liverpool University to £25,633 and by a staggering 29 per cent at Essex to £30,607. So far Cambridge is offering the fattest salaries to professors; the minimum professorial salary will be £53,670, a 23 per cent increase on 2004. The Association of University Teachers has finally discovered the benefits of local pay bargaining.