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As with every time new "world rankings" are published, I find myself scratching my head.

Am I missing something? Card-carrying professional scientist that I am, it still completely eludes me how institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or the California Institute of Technology (or even our own Imperial College London), which, as far as I know, have absolutely no arts faculties of any size, shape or form, can possibly be considered superior "universities" to the likes of Oxford, Cambridge, the University of California, Berkeley or Yale.

Did someone change what a "university" is while I wasn't looking?

Robin Irvine, Royal Society research professor, Department of pharmacology, University of Cambridge.