Captain Moonlight's Notebook: Glasgow not amused by its promotion

FURTHER proof that the Government's obsession with academic league tables is misguided has arrived, this time from Glasgow. Last month the Times published a table of British universities showing Glasgow in 24th place. This month in that newspaper's Good University Guide, Glasgow has jumped to 17th place in the same table. A month is obviously a long time in academia, but Glasgow is not amused.

The university's principal, Sir William Fraser, blames manipulation of the data and the 'whimsical nature' of the criteria employed.

'If the Times seriously believes it is providing guidance to what it would describe as the 'consumers' of education, what is the proposed consumer to make of the fact that in May . . . the data reveals that Leeds, Sussex and several other universities are in some way 'better' than Glasgow, and a couple of weeks later that Glasgow is superior to them?' he asks.