Thurrock v Thanet

Your claim that the Isle of Thanet is "the largest population centre in the country without its own higher education provision" ("New campus brings hope to Thanet", THES, May 12) is disputed by my colleague, Judith Watson, in her audit of education provision in the Thames Gateway (published by the University of Greenwich in 1998 and re-analysed in the context of Greater London for the journal Rising East). She pinpoints Thurrock and surrounding areas north of the Dartford Tunnel as the greatest concentration of population most distant from higher education provision in the UK.

This is not to deny either the claims to HE provision in larger geographical areas of dispersed populations, such as in Wiltshire and the Highlands and Islands.

Patrick Ainley

Reader in learning policy

University of Greenwich