University Alliance features in a story by BBC News Online about the 2014 World University Rankings published by Times Higher Education magazine – and their new “formula” for top universities.  University Alliance responded to say that using the rankings as a “roadmap” risked missing “the breadth of routes to delivering world-class research and graduates”.

“The obsession with this idea of a ‘world-class university’ is a distraction from the tried and tested approach in the UK and elsewhere around the world, which is to identify and reward excellence wherever it exists,” said a spokesman.

“We are all for celebrating excellence and success – let’s just not get distracted by such a narrow and limited view of where it exists.”