Letter: Three into one just won't go

Sir: It would be impossible to create a long summer break 'into which a third semester . . . could be squeezed' (leading article, 19 August; letter, 22 August).

A semester is a half-year period, and the word is derived from the Latin semestris, meaning six-monthly.

I am sure, though, that fitting 18 months' work in during one year would be the sort of productivity arrangement the Government would encourage.

Yours faithfully,

GARY SLAPPER

Staffordshire University

Stoke-on-Trent

23 August