Take account of trade

If Christian Twigg-Flesner checks the law reports (Letters, THES , August 23), he will find that in the early 1980s an Iranian student successfully pursued a polytechnic that had advertised a "state-of-the-art" petroleum technology course. The student enlisted the help of the trading standards office. Some prospect of success in the court action was entertained as the "petroleum technology" course was no different from the standard engineering course. As I recall, the polytechnic settled early on in the case as it had no defence.

H. G. S. Ferguson
Pollockshields, Glasgow