I told a gaggle of American students that everything that I had ever learnt about elite US universities came from watching films. They were impressed that this ‘strategy’ of mine was so successful.

I then asked them if they could name the top universities in the UK. They came up with three institutions: the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh.

I dropped the students off at the main library of the University of Newcastle with the instruction to spend the rest of the day researching the entire landscape of UK higher education.