Tom Clark, Cambridge

The £1.5bn is not for Westminster alone, its what the HEFC spreads out among all the eligible UK research establishments, so a few tens of millions at the very most per institution.

Joe Malan, Southampton, UK

By dint of hardwork, some "smaller" universities are catching up with so-called big shots. Stop lame arguments about some universities being former polytechnics. We are talking about today and not what happened before 1992. Please get use to this because I am sure there's more beating to come!

Jojo, London, UK

The statistics here are pretty biased. Look at performance per £ funding as a better index...

Take that Westminster University department. One fairly small department, with £1.5bn in funding? It's really no surprise that it scored well, is it!

Tom Clark, Cambridge, UK

Frankly, the slant of this piece is ridiculous. Cambridge, LSE and Oxford are clearly above newer institutions overall, like it or not.

JaneLumley, Faringdon, UK

Oxbridge does not have a monopoly on quality, only on reputation.

Simon Brandon, Hemel Hempstead,

Hmm. Some spin at work here. By using the combined 3* and 4* scores you manage to rank Oxbridge 1 & 2 and the LSE third. BUT in the vital 4* (World Leading) category LSE scores 35% to Oxbridge's 32. On GPA it is top Cambridge and joint second LSE and Oxford. On 4* research LSE is clearly top.

Andrew Murray, Romford, UK

"Effortless superiority" is a little unfair. I still believe Cambridge and Oxford offer across-the-board excellence at an international level and welcome other universities achieving or excelling these same goals.

James Montague, Winchester, UK

It was actually Imperial College London, with 73% of its work rated "world leading" or "internationally excellent" which pipped Cambridge (71%), Oxford (70%) and LSE (68%) at the post.

Tom, San Francisco,

its excellent that the former polys have world class research in certain areas, surely its only for the best that all graduates have the chance to go on to do post grad work in their field in the best environment possible. after all their are only limited places at oxbridge.

will, grimsby, uk

Its clear that there are a few big universities that attract the top academics and by extension, the best students.
These are:
Oxbridge
LSE, UCL and KCL
Bristol University
St. Andrews University
Durham University

There is need to consider placing more attention to Nottingham and Exeter

Josh Rosinger, London, UK

The Oxbridge-London dictatorship must collapse. It is so obvious that this 'exercise' has been determined by their lobbies who are spread all over academia like cancer.

John Dewey, Bristol, England

There aren't museum or media studies departments at Oxbridge, so the comparison is ridiculous. It's true to say, however, that Oxbridge was outperformed in many shared subjects (eg. English, History, History of Art) by other "old" universities, including the 1960s ones (York, Warwick, Sussex, etc

Rosemary, Oxford,

What snobbery about the '92 universities! The quality of research at Westminster is clearly adjudged of high quality compared with the competition. And like every other subject is judged by people in the field who know the subject. Just accept that what we do we do very well.

Geoffrey Davies, london, UK

Strikes me that one of the problems of Media Studies at Westminster being ranked so high might be that it was assessed by `experts' in Media studies... Maybe we needed more transparency about and regulation of the selection of those making the decisions. On second thoughts, please don't

Jon, Glasgow, UK

Despite its flaws, the RAE is useful to see how the top universities are failing. In my discipline (law), there are some clear indications that heads need to roll at the top as well as the bottom of the tables. For example, Newcastle, scored ZERO 4*'s for law. For a Russell Group uni, this is poor.

Gwyneth Johnson, London, UK

The funding should follow the researcher not the location

David Birtwistle, Ash Vale,

.. and the quality of degrees issued by non-oxbridge -v- oxbridge is .. ?

Ian James Graham, Edinburgh, UK

Oxford does do media and cultural studies and didn't do very well. It came 17th, way behind several former polys. It also chucked loads of money at media studies, launched a new The Oxford Internet institute" and recruited lots of new profs. It still didn't do that well.

marcus, swansea,

great world leading in media studies, and what use is that!? China and India are excelling in science, maths and engineering and we've got media studies. Well I hope that helps us compete in a globalized world hahaha....

Tom, London, UK

Oxbridge may have an illustrious 800 year track record of academia but that doesn't prevent the ex-polytechnics from catching up. The fact that they can is testament to the fact that it is often the staff - not the money - that determines "world-class". A little less snobbery from Oxbridge perhaps?

Jason, Newquay, Cornwall

They'll be saying next that an A level in media studies is as good as one in chemistry, that British education is 'world class,' that knife crime is falling or even that 'we are 'well placed to withstand the world recession.' Anything is possible in the looking glass world of government statistics

R Mason, London, UK

Oxbridge superiority is not effortless, nor a myth, just a fact.

Simon Moss, Paris , France

@ John - I'm not sure this does break the 'Oxbridge myth'. Fine, the scores this time out highlight the excellent work that is going on in pockets around the country, but overall the results provide a basis for the sort of Golden triangle concentration of research funding that the Govt seems to want

Andrew, Belfast,

I'm a research academic at one of the 'former poly' success stories of RAE2008 – in a 'new university' subject (not golf). I'm also (far from uniquely among my colleagues) an Oxbridge graduate. Perhaps Raleigh and his/her ilk would care to explain the (lack of) reasoning behind their comments.

Claire, London,

Ok, this is good news for the polytechnics. Now take your media studies or museum studies degree and apply for a job where the other applicants have proper degrees from proper unis and see how you get on!

Tom, London,

Yes but what about the real subjects of science and engineering. Media studies and museun studies don't rate. I wouldn't have been surprised to find that Oxbridge essentially ignored them.

Chris, Ashford, Middx, England

Cambridge has given 82 Nobel prize winners to the world. Other institutes will be on par with Oxbridge when they reach that level. Do you think that polytechs can make up for 800 years of excellence by creating a new assesment system?
Mind you this about research and not taught degrees.

Emma Huntington, Cambridge, UK

John - yes, Oxbridge research is not effortlessly superior... but i think their teaching probably is.

Steve, Belfast,

More Oxbridge bashing from people who are simply jealous.

NT, London,

Given the ex-polys have had about 15 years, rather than several hundred to embark on research projects it's no surprise they are not at the top - but relatively speaking they have done quite well. And I say this as a grad of both old and new universities. I agree though golf studies etc is hmm :(

rod, ex, ex-uk

Nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody, will take this exercise seriously if it suggests that the former polys are on a par with Oxbridge.

Raleigh, London, UK

What-o?

Media studies and museum studies. Are they perhaps world leading because no other country's universities deem those worthy of study?

Yes John Mullarkey, the myth of Oxbridge shattered. I'm sure they couldn't compete in golf studies or skateboard studies either. What is their place?

Rob, London, UK

British (former) Polytechnics world-class. You must be joking!

Henrik Ueberschar, Celle, Germany

Well, if this doesn't reinforce the "Golden Triangle" I don't know what will.

Naeem Ahmad, Newquay, Cornwall

The breaking of the Oxbridge myth of effortless superiority is long overdue and much to be welcomed.

John Mullarkey, Leeds, UK