League lowdown 3

Latin American studies exist - except in The THES league tables.

There, alongside Asia and Africa, we find a solitary America, of a distinctly Anglo hue. It is true that for the purposes of the RAE, the ten institutes and centres of Latin American studies in the UK have accepted a pan-American pact, but we should have liked the tables to have registered the 24 undergraduate degrees offered in 17 universities.

Knowledge of real-world economics is prized even in the secretary of state's ebulliently expedient idea of a university, and yet there are only two British academics under the age of 40 teaching Latin American economics at a time when these emerging markets are threatening to become endangered areas.

James Dunkerley
University of London