All this it hopes to avert by chopping staff and selling farmland. Despite all this it keeps crowing about how ‘successful’ it is. In a media release earlier this month headed ‘Lincoln’s star continues to rise’ it quotes a meaningless world university ranking survey that puts Lincoln 343rd in the world: “This latest increase means it has gone up 138 places since 2013,” Lincoln’s spin-doctors gushed. And then, “It is maintaining its top New Zealand status for low teacher-student ratios which: Tell that to the 50 staff it may have to sack to get it books back in black!