51¹ú²úÊÓƵ

Claire Sanders reports that "many vice-chancellors maintain that Britain can sustain only two world-class universities". Who, which and why?

To hazard a guess that "world class" means big and good, one must surely be the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of London - with gems such as Imperial, 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ College London and the London School of Economics - while the other, for the time being, is, presumably, Cambridge. Splendid though both are, it seems remarkably blinkered of "many" vice-chancellors to write off the possibility of other British universities being "world class". I have no difficulty in arguing this status for my own institution, and, from the article, it appears that Oxford is not far off either.

John Robinson
Department of electronics
51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of York