Provost’s election

AS someone who has been privileged to lecture in Trinity College Dublin for 42 years, I simply fail to recognise Myles Duffy’s description of our system of electing a provost as having “the hallmarks of an elite gentleman’s club” (Letters, October 18).

On the contrary, I am unaware of a more democratic method in existence in the university world as a whole. Indeed, if there is anything I regret, it is the present failure of Trinity College to trust nominators and electors by keeping the old system intact.

The whole of Ireland needs to see that the emerging provost is supremely well fitted for the important role (if less important than that of the President of the United States) that he or she will have to play.