Odd rankings

There are three main tables of university world rankings and Alex Salmond is fortunate that the Far East’s much respected Shanghai Ranking is little known over here. 
Its focus is on the natural 
sciences rather than the humanities and it places Edinburgh at 50, the other ancient Scottish 
universities around 200 and the rest nowhere.

The QS World University Rankings has Edinburgh at 21, Glasgow 54, St Andrews 93 and Aberdeen 162. It was part of the original Times Higher Education (THES) rankings but the Times decided to go it alone, accusing QS of having Shanghai’s science bias.

Yet its own top-ten inclusion of Cal Tech, MIT, Imperial, Chicago and Berkeley makes it look the most science-biased of the three. By the way, as George 
Kerevan notes (Perspective, 6 October), the THES has Edinburgh at 32, St Andrews 108, Glasgow 139 and Aberdeen at 176.

Such tables are the academic equivalent of synchronised swimming – which most people do not consider a sport and would rather not have included in the Olympics. Yet, as regards our future ability to attract high quality South-east Asian students, it is disturbing to note just how little the Far East thinks of the cash-starved Scottish universities.

(Dr)John Cameron

Howard Place

St Andrews