Weights and measures

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