When is a top university not a top university?

Back in the spring, I used to keep seeing an advert on Facebook suggesting I should study for a British Masters degree at the “9th Best University in the UK”. The university in question was Liverpool John Moores University.

Now, I mean no disrespect to Liverpool John Moores, but it is not a university that has troubled the top 10 in any of the major league tables, so I was naturally curious about this claim to be ninth best? By what measure were they making this claim?

Well, the small print on the advert gave the source…