Visitor is dead

Graham Zellick's eulogy to the visitor (Letters, THES, September 17) indulges in the same "piffle" he is keen to dismiss. Whether he likes it or not, the Human Rights Act will not only force the abandonment of the visitorial system but it will also usher in an era of public accountability and student rights. Universities are finally realising that they will have to stop lording it up and start playing by the rules like every other publicly funded sector.

By praising a visitorial system in which he so obviously has a vested interest, he is guilty of the same double standards and lack of principles of which he accuses others. Is this not the same vice-chancellor who took a principled stand against Diana Warwick's potential conflict of interest in representing both the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals and the government? That he still endorses an outlandish system that lacks independence and does not adhere to even the most basic principles of natural justice smacks of hypocrisy.

Speaking on Radio 4's File on Four last year, Zellick waxed lyrical about a "rather splendid system" that "protects the world of higher education". For students, the visitorial system is neither splendid nor does its regalia offer any kind of protection against injustice and inadequate provision.

Long live the Queen, the visitor is dead.

Don Staniford Project officer National Postgraduate Committee.