Name and shame

I enjoyed Gargi Bhattach-aryya's article ("Feelgood is no good", THES, March 31).

It is all very well setting targets and quotas for the entry of women and ethnic groups into higher education. We should also look at the structures and systems where these very people are employed.

As a black British woman, teaching for some 14 years (initially further then higher education), I am well aware of the way in which some of the unscrupulous operate to ensure that "our sort" are kept in our place or at a disadvantage. The system should find ways of accepting everyone and also dealing more frankly with those who make working life difficult for some of us. It is too easy to say there is a policy. If it is not acted on, what is the point?

Perhaps a revision in employment policy is also needed - not just quotas. Organisations should publicly name and shame the bullies, racists and sexists in higher education.

Carol Wilkinson.

Principal lecturer in health studies University of Lincolnshire and Humberside.