Proportionate strength

Ann Mroz (Leader, 6 October) says that by using a per capita measure, Switzerland (seven universities in the top 200) and the Netherlands (12 universities) lead the 2011-12 THE World University Rankings. Measured in this way, Scotland's universities perform marginally better than Switzerland's (five in the top 200 in a country of 5.25 million people). The question is, what does that mean?

Graham H. Turner, School of Management and Languages, Heriot-Watt University