“Today the role of professor has veered to a ludicrously opposite extreme from the untrammelled freedom of the postwar years. Under huge pressure to be labelled a highly starred international researcher in the next research assessment exercise, a professor is expected to produce top-quality books and papers, while buried under a ferocious bureaucracy of business plans, mission statements, forecasts, audits of every kind, endless meetings, paperwork, quality inspections, performance assessments and interim reviews. It is no way to treat talented and creative people, on whom the next generation of scholars, and indeed our society, depends.”