26 FEBRUARY 2000, Page 30

From Robert Service Sir: As someone who teaches Russian and

East European studies at Oxford and who sometimes (but not 'invariably') polishes my shoes (invariably made in my native Northampton) with a toothbrush, I suspect I may be one of the persons referred to in the recent article on undergraduate teaching here. The first implication is that polishing shoes and listening to essays — like chewing gum and walking — are mutually exclusive activities. The second is that academics have no duty to encourage respect for one of the few industrial artefacts still made successful- ly in the United Kingdom. Unlike Nikita Khrushchev, I do not bang shoes on desks, and I feel that my harmless habit should not be used to give Oxford a kicking.

Robert Service

St Antony's College, Oxford