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Although biased towards the value of tutorials in higher education, as a non-lawyer I found myself quite unconvinced by the defence of them offered by Richard Mullender (Personal View, THES, September ).

If the students were satisfactorily doing "the kind of thing" that is done in tutorials, surely the logical conclusion is that replacement of conventional lectures by more interactive experiences will not only help to compensate for loss of tutorial time but will also encourage students to take a more active role in every aspect of their learning.

TERESA O'BRIEN Centre for English language studies in education, University of Manchester