Letter: Competition is to blame for alleged bad blood at Oxford

Sir: In response to your leading article on recent machinations on promotions to professorial posts at the University of Oxford, we believe the issue of gender is secondary to a more fundamental problem.

Sensible procedures for academic staff appraisal and development should surely include the following components:

1. a rigorous appraisal of staff when making a permanent appointment to the post of lecturer, after a five-year probationary period;

2. a bar on the movement of lecturers to the salary scales equivalent to a senior lecturer grade at other universities without a formal review of teaching and research performance;

3. an annual appraisal for the award of merit-related salary increases for all academic staff; and

4. an annual review of proposals for promotion to reader and professorial grades.

We must all cherish the 'last enchantments of the Middle Ages' still whispered from the college battlements and spires. But in the modern world sensible staff appraisal procedures, repeated annually, would seem essential for the recruitment and retention of high-quality individuals of both genders.

Yours faithfully,

ROY ANDERSON

(Linacre Professor Elect,

University of Oxford)

ROBERT MAY

(Royal Society Professor,

University of Oxford)

London, SW7

19 May