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Vice-chancellors were not exactly trumpeting their appointment of Alasdair Smith to the chair of the Universities and Colleges Employers'

Association this week. Smith is embroiled in an industrial row over redundancies and the state of the university's finances at his own institution, Sussex. It was not until the seventh paragraph of a press release dedicated to celebrating the qualities of the outgoing chair, Geoffrey Copland, that Smith was unveiled as the new man representing employers.