For the record

November 26, 2009

While Sandra Kemp might like to clarify what she calls "inaccuracies" about the situation at the London College of Communication (Letters, 19 November), on behalf of more than 115 students enrolled on the BA in public relations, we would like to set the record straight.

We have had no access to a personal tutor since the start of term. Some final-year students have only just been notified of their dissertation supervisor - after their proposal was due in - and there has been reduced research support generally. Lectures have been cancelled and shifted as essential staff are put on gardening leave. This is the result of a restructure that in our opinion has been badly handled.

Kemp says that our course is fully staffed by a team of specialist PR academics and practitioners. But we have only two, and by the time this letter is published, it will be only one.

There has been no advertisement for a course director. With the support of the previous incumbent, Paul Simpson, we have long campaigned for specialist content and access to specialist resources through the university's democratic structures. A promised revalidation has been postponed for three consecutive years. Why should we believe it will happen next year? We understand Simpson's decision to resign as a final attempt to draw attention to underinvestment in a profitable and otherwise sector-leading degree.

With our head of college misrepresenting the situation, students unsurprisingly are turning to protest.

Tove Nordstrom; George Clark; Emma Edwards et al; elected course representatives, BA (Hons) PR London College of Communication, University of the Arts London.

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