Sir, - Each year the Financial Times makes a thorough attempt to rank the universities of the United Kingdom. The latest FT league table was published on April 7th. In it the Queen's University of Belfast is shown to have fallen to 37th place. In 2000 Queen's was at 33, and in 1999 at 27. The decline has been continuous and is now alarming.
Could it be that the oligarchic management of the university, far from improving the academic standing of Queen's, has been hastening the decay of a once fine home of scholarship and science? - Yours, etc.,
G. L. Huxley, Hon.Litt.D.Dublin, Hon.D.Lit.Belfast, Trinity College, Dublin 2.