Heavy lies the Oxbridge crown

As far as I'm concerned, Oxford has been brought into disrepute by the donations which it has accepted in recent years.

What makes the universities of Oxford and Cambridge important in the U.K. and in the higher education sector across the world is the distinction of its researchers and teachers and the quality of its undergraduate and postgraduate students. They constitute two of this country's world-class institutions. The fact that Louise Richardson has been a more successful Vice-Chancellor at Oxford than Stephen Toope has been at Cambridge is really incidental just as the recurrent issues over funding of the universities themselves and the finances of their constituent colleges and other bodies is. There will be recurrent questions over forms of governance too. But most of Rosa Ellis's piece really does not address the enduring excellence of Oxford and Cambridge.