Sir, – Further to this week's discourse on the "disappointing" performance of Irish universities in the QS ranking table ("Universities drop lower in world rankings", September 15th), perhaps the next league table might put matters in perspective.
Institution annual revenue: Stanford €4.51 billion; Harvard €3.89 billion; MIT €2.76 billion; Cambridge €2.13 billion. All seven Irish universities: €1.7 billion; University College Cork: €0.29 billion.
QS Rankings reflect institutional wealth and talk of creating a single globally significant elite Irish university is absurd. Unless, of course, we close the other six and throw in another billion or so per annum. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL B MURPHY, MD
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President,
University College Cork.