Letter: Raising fees will lower standards

Letter: Raising fees will lower standards

Sir: When calculating the number of weeks spent studying, David West (Letters, 28 July) forgot to deduct "reading weeks", giving you only nine weeks per term. Some professors carry on revision lectures in the summer term - others do not. At worst you have 18 weeks of study, comprising four lectures and four seminars, for three years. It requires only very simple mathematics to see that you can get your degree by attending 72 hours of lectures and 72 hours of seminars per annum - the equivalent of nine working days. With accommodation running at about pounds 2,000 per annum, plus the cost of books, paper and so on, and the extra pounds 1,000 in university fees, our children's university education will cost us the princely sum of pounds 389 per "working day".

CHRISTINA VON GRAEVENITZ

Canterbury, Kent