Unless the amount of money it takes to run the universities is larger than the amount of money that Scotland has in tax.

BBC: Summit held on Scottish higher education funding

Many scientists liked Mr Caputo's plan in principle, but worried that the universities would prove too disorganised to run things properly.

ECONOMIST: Argentina

When academics complain about students who arrive with an incomplete grasp of their subject, universities run remedial classes to make up the deficit.

ECONOMIST: Reform is mooted as exam grades seem to rise inexorably

While academic labs are the font of many biological discoveries, universities tend to run their own clinical trials quite casually.

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Yoido Full Gospel Church's founder Cho Yong-gi, who has run the congregation since 1958, has family interests ranging from private universities to newspapers.

ECONOMIST: South Korean mega-churches

Several major universities, including Cornell University and Stanford University, are competing for the chance to run the city's proposed school.

WSJ: Facebook Plans to Boost Its Presence in New York

He said the discussions between the University of Aberdeen and Robert Gordon University would enable two distinct, independent institutes to run their universities in "an even more efficient manner".

BBC: Salmond backs university facility sharing

Many corporations are creating their own internal universities because they feel business schools have failed at training the managers and leaders needed to run their companies.

FORBES: Corporate Universities: An Emerging Threat to Graduate Business Education

It will also transform Japan's 99 state-run universities and colleges into independent agencies, freeing them to accept research contracts from industry and use the money as they see fit.

ECONOMIST: The land of disappointments

The university, which has forged links with similar projects run by universities in Leicester and Dundee, believes its scheme to be unique in offering free counselling to members of the public.

BBC: Men in a room