The higher ranking institutions should be best placed to take advantage of the cap removal; however, less established universities may struggle.
Even being one of the world's highest ranking institutions does not guarantee that people in some parts of the world will be familiar with who you are.
Several ranking institutions such as University College London, The University of Singapore, Cornell and MIT have produced a continuous stream of ground-breaking research on the topic, which is followed by serious coursework.
"There should be a study," says graduate school dean Lawrence Martin of the State University of New York, Stony Brook, who is also head of a panel of land-grant colleges that has drafted a position paper urging coverage of more fields, greater use of objective research criteria, exploration of some measures of program outcome, and ranking institutions by cluster rather than individually.
Though various periodicals provide ranking of medical schools, there is no agreement about transparent, objective and quantifiable methods of ranking institutions [ 16].
Meanwhile, the University of Cambridge, the UK's highest-ranking institution, slipped down a place this year to number 6.
Two-thirds of those surveyed in top universities and one other from a "mid-ranking" institution said – unprompted – that they considered diplomas "more relevant to post-1992 universities".
When the sociologist Bob Burgess was appointed to the top job at the University of Leicester 15 years ago, he took the helm of a dull, mid-ranking institution that left people unimpressed.
In a valiant attempt to demystify the notorious University of Oxford interview, the top-ranking institution has released a set of sample questions on which prospective applicants – and everyone else – can test their rhetorical and intellectual skills.
California's Stanford University takes first place, while the University of Cambridge is the UK's highest-ranking institution at number 5. The University of Oxford places at 8 and Imperial College London at 20.
