H. C. S. Ferguson needs to check the pensions calculations (Letters, THES , December 14) in detail. Quite apart from the improbability of a lecturer clocking up 40 years of pensionable service by age 60, a retiree who converts all 40 years' worth of lump sum into added years, even if allowed, will achieve only 57.5 per cent of salary as pension, well below the two-thirds final salary the 1/60 formula gives.
Dick Leigh
University of Westminster