Much jollity at Church House this week as luminaries from the world of further education gathered to celebrate the latest moves towards improving the professional development of lecturers. Their host was David Hunter, chief executive of Lifelong Learning UK.

Guest of honour was Bill Rammell, the further and higher education minister, who said he tried hard to keep the word “colleges” in the title of his new home, the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

But of course, with “colleges” in the title it would have been DICUS with a hard C, as it were which he explained was best avoided just in case it attracted any chortling from “our friends in the press”. So we are left with DIUS, which also happens to be the name of the Roman god of oaths (Dius Fidus) no doubt worshipped by those involved in bureaucracy. Obviously just a coincidence.