Sir, – The rise or fall of an institution in one or other set of university rankings (often contradicted by another set) provides good copy and hyperbolic headlines (Home News, October 4th) . But for those of us on the ground, a few places up or down has no bearing on our day to day reality. We still have large student numbers, relatively small numbers of staff (declining year on year), inadequate resources, chronic underinvestment and a growing but serious morale problem.
None of these can be masked by temporary jumps up the higher education pop charts, any more than a slide implies any diminution in the standards of the teaching and research that we strive to produce. – Yours, etc,
Prof DANIELLE CLARKE,
School of English,
Drama and Film,
University College Dublin,
Dublin 4.