Peter Kingston reports on the Guardian about the call made by the colleges and teaching-led universities in the UK for more recognition of their overseas ventures.

Five vice-chancellors accompanied Gordon Brown across the globe this time last year on a mission to foster stronger higher education links with India and China. But the trip seems to have done little for relations with some of their colleagues back in the UK.

The fact that the prime minister took the leaders of five research-led universities with him, rather than a group reflecting a wider mix, clearly still rankles with some of their counterparts in the teaching-led universities.

That episode typifies a level of ignorance in the government and civil service, according to Professor Les Ebdon, vice-chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire and chair of Million+, a higher education thinktank subscribed to by 28 post-1992 universities.

“We often find that ministers don’t recognise fully the range of international activities that universities are involved with,” he says. “And in particular there is maybe a perception that only certain universities are engaged.”