One we nicked earlier

Ian Marshall suggests that lecturers should avoid "wasting potential research time" by downloading lectures from the internet and reading them out ("It is time we tamed the tyranny of technology", September 21).

How on earth could we expect students to pay thousands of pounds for such shoddy treatment? They are entirely capable of nicking material from the internet for themselves. There is no point having lectures on the timetable if they are not inspiring and driven by an individual lecturer's passion for their subject.

It is not easy to combine teaching, research, administration and student support, but the suggestion from a pro vice-chancellor that we should fob students off in this way is quite incredible.

David Gauntlett
Professor of media and communications
Westminster University