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Nature 402, 848 (23 December 1999) | doi:10.1038/47167

Spain's universities split over merits of performance table

See associated Correspondence: Mira-Pérez, Nature 404, 222 (March 2000)

Xavier Bosch

A government-funded study that has ranked Spain's 44 public universities by giving each of them a score between one and ten has stirred up a fierce controversy.Older universities came out best — seven of the top ten are at least 100 years old — and many of their officials say that the study confirms the quality of their work and shows the usefulness of comparative evaluation.