If I were a student again, I'd be protesting about the paucity of lectures.

Quite rightly, our students want value for money and they're not getting it.

When I was at Cambridge University in the 1970s, lectures were seen as a valuable means of learning, if only to protest when one professor chose to turn a session on "Tudor government" into an attack on the Labour Government.

Good didactic teaching has its place at every phase of education, from primary to tertiary.

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Student-centred investigation is also important: we need to develop independent learners. The problem is that our deans and dons, bogged down by paperwork and under pressure to win funding by maximising research, have urged student-centred learning as a convenient excuse to avoid lecturing.

I rejoice that today's students are once again recognising the need for expert teaching.

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Well, professor, all is forgiven. Surfing the web is no substitute for the real thing.

Quentin Deakin
Green Party Spokesperson for higher and further education