Proportionate strength

October 20, 2011

Ann Mroz (Leader, 6 October) says that by using a per capita measure, Switzerland (seven universities in the top 200) and the Netherlands (12 universities) lead the 2011-12 THE World University Rankings. Measured in this way, Scotland's universities perform marginally better than Switzerland's (five in the top 200 in a country of 5.25 million people). The question is, what does that mean?

Graham H. Turner, School of Management and Languages, Heriot-Watt University

You've reached your article limit.

Register to continue

Registration is free and only takes a moment. Once registered you can read a total of 3 articles each month, plus:

Sign up for the editor's highlights
Receive World University Rankings news first
Get job alerts, shortlist jobs and save job searches
Participate in reader discussions and post comments

Or subscribe for unlimited access to:

Unlimited access to news, views, insights & reviews
Digital editions
Digital access to THE’s university and college rankings analysis
Unrestricted access to the UK and global edition of the THE app on IOS, Android and Kindle Fire

Featured Jobs

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research)/Vice-President

University Of Technology Sydney (uts)

Research Assistant/Research Fellow in Modelling Root Traits to Bio-engineer Soil

Cranfield University

Lecturer in Data Science - Data Sciences with Analytics

University Of Greenwich

Digital Marketing and Recruitment Executive

London School Of Economics & Political Science Lse

Science Education Technician

University Of Roehampton

See all jobs

Most Commented

V-c pay: Are vice-chancellors worth their salaries?

Last week, the UK’s universities minister threatened to fine institutions that pay their v-cs more than the prime minister without a strong justification. We present three perspectives on the debate

The moral panic over student cheating must end

We need to call off the witch-hunt and trust in the capacity of our students to learn, says Bruce Macfarlane

Poisonous science: the dark side of the lab

The bullying and subsequent suicide of a talented Ivy League scientist exposes ugly truths about the cruelty and dysfunction at the heart of academic science