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As temples of higher learning, universities are particularly partial to Latin phraseology. The more obscure the phrase, the better. Latin froth can also convey a potent image of lofty intellectualism that emboldens vacuous claims to "higher education" and "excellence". The motto is indeed a wonderful window to the university's soul. It is what Oscar Wilde might have referred to as the triumph of hope over experience. In this article, the author talks about university mottos and presents examples of mottos that are emblazoned on university coats of arms. There are also many other promotional emissions to take into account, like mission/vision/value statements, that aspire to the other-worldly elitism of today's universities. The author describes a few examples of what some universities say about themselves.

In this article the author discusses public reaction generated by the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings. He argues that it is not simply that the methodologies adopted by the main rankers -- Times Higher Education (THE), QS and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University -- are diverse and open to the usual interpretation, but there appears to be a significant leaning towards the Anglo-American scene with no fewer than 18 American and British universities figuring in the top twenty of the THE ranking, with the exceptions being the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and the unassuming but almost Anglo-American University of Toronto. He goes on to say that the pathetic performance of Australian universities in the latest THE ranking headed by the University of Melbourne (36), Australian National University (43) (17 last year) and the University of Sydney (71) (36 last year), has for now at least, put the skids under the tertiary "education revolution". In order to have a more open and competitive system that truly reflects the new culture of public transparency that is the "My University" website, he suggests that Australia develops a more innovative approach to its own internal system of rankings by adopting the league table system of the English Football Association. Each year two universities will be promoted and two relegated and the university topping the Foster's Premier League will be declared champions and the respective vice-chancellors ensconced in Sudan chairs and paraded before an assembled House of Representatives.