Worrying rankings 1

Your World University Rankings are fascinating (November 5). One of the unexpected results is to debunk the old saw about how US universities are good because they skim talent from the rest of the world. On the contrary, you show the best American universities recruit more locally than peers elsewhere.

This means it is primarily Americans who staff the universities that predominate at the top when it comes to research work cited.

In other words, Americans are producing the research the world is reading. That should be yet another cause for concern for the rest of the world.

Peter Baldwin
Berlin, Germany