My friend on the PS3 has a problem with the Archmage during this part of the quest, he puts the ward up but the Archmage doesn't fire a fireball at him. Any idea how to fix this?

is he standing in the right place? and his follower is not standing too close - get the follower to wait far away.

Edit: youre talking about 'first lessons', right? with tolfdir (not the archmage). wiki says:

To FIX: When Tolfdir first moves into position and asks you to stand across from him, move into position
facing his character and try slowly stepping backwards or shifting sideways towards the left or right until
you're in the right spot and the quest proceeds. If this fails, walk behind Tofldir and kill the students behind him. When this is done, run away from hostile peaople and fast travel to another town. Go back to the college and Tolfdir will talk about how unfortunate evnts occurred, and the quest will be completed.