AS far as opening gambits go, this one from Times Higher Education is about as hackneyed as they come...

Only Oxford University educated more serving world leaders than the University of Manchester

'Asked to identify something associated with Manchester, most people would probably mention its football clubs, Coronation Street or one of its numerous indie bands.'

C'mon now folks, yes Manchester boasts 25 Nobel Laureates (more than all but seven nations) but how could you forget the Hacienda? If you're going to roll out the tired cliches, at least complete the tried and tested tetrad.

Anyway, this week the publication published a new study by education think-tank, Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), revealing that 55 serving world leaders (defined as monarch, prime minister or president) from 51 countries had studied at a UK university.

To put this in perspective, there are currently 196 countries in the world today (depending on your position on Taiwan and Palestine); assuming then we have 196 leaders, UK universities have educated nearly 30% of all the world's topdogs.

What's more, per student the UK is ten times more likely than the US to educate a world leader

...talk about punching above your weight.

More interesting still, only Oxford University - the 2nd highest ranked university in the world - educated more serving world leaders than the University of Manchester, ranked 56th.

Nine current world premiers - from Australia's Malcolm Turnbull to Jordan's King Abdullah II - studied at Oxford. While eight leaders (listed below) were educated in Manchester.

.Iceland's President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson studied economics and politics in Manchester

World leaders educated at the University of Manchester:

- President Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud - Somaliland

- President Filipe Nyusi - Mozambique

- Prime Minister Gaston Browne - Antigua and Barbuda

- Prime Minister Haider Jawad Kadhim Al-Abadi - Iraq

- President Michael D. Higgins - Republic of Ireland

- President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson - Iceland

- Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves - St Vincent and the Grenadines

- Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah - Palestine

Surprisingly, only three serving world leaders - including Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong - studied at Cambridge (the 4th best university in the world)

Bristol University (69th) and London School of Economics (23rd) also scored three, while Birmingham (119th) scored only two.

In which case, I think we'll all agree that Birmingham can stick those five Michelin stars right up their ar....

hepi.ac.uk