Education - Letter: `Inactive' tutor

I am a mature student, embarking on the final years of my English degree at Queens, Belfast, and I am also the mother of two sons who will, I hope, be part of the university system within the next two years. This is a purely personal letter, sparked by the incredulity of discovering that one of my English tutors has apparently been diagnosed as "research inactive". I am confused, as this tutor represents for me all that one expects from a university. Her enthusiasm for her subject and her desire to share her wealth of knowledge is legendary. Her lectures are dynamic and bear witness to meticulous and constant research. I cannot think that she would ever retrieve previously delivered lectures or regurgitate chapters from one of her publications.

Monica Patterson

Holywood, Co Down