Top tables?

Presumably, most people would agree that all institutions in UK higher education are not the same. My co-authors and I would also argue that attempts at ranking the institutions should not all be tarred with the same brush, as Mantz Yorke and Bernard Longden have done ("Bring meaning to tables", Soapbox, June 10).

We would agree that the methodology behind some tables is opaque but we have gone out of our way in The Times/Times Higher tables to be transparent.

We would also agree that some measures used in other tables this year are bizarre. We would never encourage the use of league tables in isolation but rather as part of much wider advice and guidance. We advocate this time and again in The Times Good University Guide 2006 (Times Books) published last week.

The guide covers many of the other issues that Yorke and Longden suggest prospective students ought to consider.

Finally, they seem unaware that we do indeed engage with the sector - on at least three occasions every year.

Bernard Kingston
Co-author of The Times Good University Guide Mayfield University Consultants Sheffield