Intersting story on American and European universities

<p><a href="http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4370590%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4370590&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>They reference the Sha Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranking. Should we take this as a sign that media sees the ranking as more legitimate indicator of world universities than the London times ranking?</p>

<p>European Universities cannot compete in funding. Therefore, American ones have the edge in research. For example, Oxford's endowment is only a fifth of Harvard's.</p>

<p>are government grants given directly to research considered part of the endowment at public universities though? I am just thinking there could be hidden money at Oxford that isn't coming across in their endowment.</p>