Letter: Nominal traditions

Sir: The possibility of the Imperial College of Science and Technology becoming independent (23 October) prompts me to make a plea. When the colleges of advanced technology were given university status they also opted for the name and so, more recently, did the polytechnics.

I hope that Imperial College will remain proud of its name, will remain true to its tradition of being concerned mainly, though not exclusively, with those disciplines on which the country's prosperity rests, will not become the University of South Kensington but will follow the example of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, of the Eidgenossische Hochschule in Zurich, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass, and of the Technische Hochschule in Aachen.

Yours faithfully,

N. KURTI

Department of Engineering

and Science

Oxford University

25 October