I should like to think that my comments of a
fortnight ago had, together with comments elsewhere, something to do with the decision of the University Grants Committee not only to agree to the increase of the salaries of University Professors from a basic £1,450 to a basic ,C1,600, but to meet the still more serious grievances of Readers and Lecturers, many of whom have been getting remuneration on which it was virtually impossible for a married man to live. For Readers and Senior Lecturers a maximum which may be in some cases as high as L1,600 will be a substantial advance, and Lecturers and Assistant Lecturers get a more or less proportionate increment. This is not merely bare justice ; it is at the same time plain common sense.
If men at or near the top of the tree in their particular line of study are to be tempted away from the universities by invitations from business firms—not because they are covetous for gold, but because they have families to consider—then the whole standard of education in this country must inevitably be lowered. The University Grants Committee has done the right thing—not before it was fully time.
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