Undaunted, Ayer turned UCL into one of the liveliest centres of English-language philosophy, hiring men who later became public intellectuals, including Sir Stuart Hampshire, Richard Wollheim and Sir Bernard Williams.

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Oxford came top for English language and literature, philosophy, modern languages and geography in the QS World University Rankings by subject.

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The Google executive said online language translation was important because the company's philosophy was to provide access to "all the world's information".

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Pansieri, a fluent speaker of English, German, French, Spanish and Chinese, in addition to her native Italian, holds doctorate degrees in philosophy from Milan University and in Chinese language and literature from Venice University.

UN: Secretary-General