Five alive

(Photograph) - Manchester University's Whitworth Art Gallery, exhibiting Sean Skully's painting Backcloth, was one of five university museums added this week to the Museum and Galleries Commission's prestigious list of "designated" museums, meaning their collections are particularly valuable.

Cambridge University's Sedgwick museum of earth sciences and museum of zoology, Birmingham university's Barber Institute of Fine Arts and the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, part of University College, London, were the others. Sophie Wilson, administrator at the Barber, said: "Winning the status will be of value in supporting applications for funding." Photograph: Howard Barlow