Great to see EU regional funding being put to good use in developing the University of Hull's Business School (now with some 2000 students) and its new Logistics Institute which is attracting interest across Europe. The EU funding is contingent on them reaching out to help local businesses improve their operational efficiency, thereby bringing added value and extra jobs to the local economy.

The school, in a sensitively restored building, features state-of-the-art modern equipment. University lecturers can saunter into the lecture theatres carrying no more than a memory stick: notes, graphs, pictures et al can be projected on to screens and students' laptops. Instead of old blackboards, there is a high-tech screen to write on, which can immediately turn even the worst handwriting into printed text. I must tell Francis Jacobs (one off my co-authors)!