As someone who worked throughout his career at two small but excellent institutions (the universities of Sussex and St Andrews), I?find it irritating to see grant income rankings that take no account of size (“Bloomsbury blooms: UCL leads grant income table”, News, 14 November). Of course the likes of University College London, the University of Oxford and the University of Edinburgh will do well on such a table by virtue of size alone. But what about per capita income? That might actually mean something.
P.?J.?B. Slater
Emeritus professor of natural history
University of St Andrews