Collegial enterprise

It all depends on what you mean by "entrepreneurial" (World view, THES, September 29). My work suggests a cycle of progression from a corporate to an entrepreneurial university. The current phase emphasises twinning the two in a top-down corporate enterprise in which money and markets predominate.

But enterprise is also about client delight - satisfaction is not enough. Standards of student service and replenishing the "product" by research and scholarship are essential.

The "collegial enterprise" combines the best of the two: getting rid of traditionalists' ivory-tower arrogance and establishing a mature approach to the market. Essential values of the academy are not prostituted but underpin a relationship of service, not subordination, and partnership.

Ian McNay Professor of higher education and management University of Greenwich