Poppleton's cash call

Poppleton's v-c, Professor Lapping, (Laurie Taylor, THES, March 19) is quoted as saying that, "At 50 pence per minute this (an 0845 number for students to listen to pre-recorded tutorials) represents exceptional value". Surely such numbers are charged at the local rate, which at peak times is about 6 pence a minute.

Is this yet more evidence of Poppleton having gone one step too far in its no-nonsense approach to fees? I would advise any dissatisfied Poppleton MBAs who are not working in telephony to raise the issue with Oftel. Prospective MBAs might ask why streaming audio is not being used to deliver tutorial products and services across the internet.

Roy Pearce Computing systems Birmingham University