Cornish clots on the A30

Your article entitled "Physical versus organic growth" (THES, September 13) hits the nail on the head when you point out that Exeter's so-called "Cornwall Initiative" is being pushed "despite the fact that the initiative's future is uncertain, whereas Plymouth's venture is already up and running".

Exeter's plans are wholly speculative, based upon hopes for capital funding, and with hopes for recurrent funding based upon policy decisions yet to be made. And when those decisions are made, no doubt they will occur with a keen eye to value for money, which an expensive (about Pounds 80 million) new campus is unlikely to represent.

In any case, as John Bull, the vice chancellor of the University of Plymouth realises, Cornwall's needs are probably not for an elitist institution rooted in the philosophy of the 16th century, which is located at the bottom of the county. Penzance is as far from Bodmin as is Exeter. Bodmin to Plymouth is little over half an hour.

Cornish people tend to view increased higher education provision as first, offering better opportunities for their children and themselves, and second, helping to regenerate the Cornish economy.

The expansion of the current dispersed model in conjunction with the RATIO and COLS (Cornwall Open Learning System) projects will benefit students from the whole county. Your map showing the distribution of HE in the south west omitted to reveal this dispersion: for instance, here at Cornwall College we have over 800 students on university courses.

As for the second of these needs, the Exeter initiative may regenerate the Penzance economy, but is unlikely to do much for the rest of Cornwall other than increase traffic congestion on the A30.

PAULINE RENDALL Head of centre for community and health studies, Cornwall College, Redruth