Letter: We did meet our target (1)

Your report on the recovery of funding ("Recruitment failures lose out on £35m", THES, March 2) was mistaken because the Higher Education Funding Council for England published incorrect data for this college in Circular 01/12.

Hefce failed to implement our request to phase in additional student numbers we were awarded last year and would agree to correct the position only in this year's funding round. A note to this effect was not incorporated in the circular.

The college recruited to target this year, including the first phase of our additional student numbers. Our first-year student entry in 2000 was bigger than any previous year in the college's history. We are, therefore, not "failing" in our recruitment. Far from it. Our position in the sector, and in the agricultural industry, as the largest and most successful land-based higher education institution in the UK, remains unchanged.

Wynne Jones
Harper Adams University College
Newport, Shropshire