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Since 1992, universities such as Plymouth have worked to broaden the research base in higher education and move beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries to develop new areas of interdisciplinary work. It is depressing to find how little progress has been made ("Scientists go to law over RAE scores", THES , May 10). Interdisciplinary development in the UK is far behind many of our competitors in Europe and the US. More depressing is that the Higher Education Funding Council for England sat by and quietly allowed academic conservatism to dominate the research agenda.

Mark Blacksell
Dean, faculty of science
University of Plymouth