The majority of able university teachers and researchers in Wales would not share A. J. H. Latham's relish for belonging to a "feeder unit".
But Latham's reading of the higher education review report is not wholly unfair. The position of Aberystwyth, Bangor, Carmarthen, Lampeter and Swansea is nowhere properly described in the recommendations, and we may never know what vision it was that the Welsh National Assembly's education and lifelong learning committee fumbled for in their quaint ignorance of the Welsh sector's strengths and weaknesses.
Welsh minister for education Jane Davidson has refused to comment on the overall strategy as settled, permitting comments only on detail. The minister and her colleagues avoid the only genuine fix for what is "broke" - the failure of the UK government and the Welsh Assembly to fund Welsh higher education on a par with England and Scotland.
Andrew Morgan
Swansea