BBC, British Museum & Oxbridge - are we seeing change in our most valued institutions?

We've seen the shambolic incident of missing rare artefacts at the British Museum unfold under the noses of security and big wigs who assured us everything was accounted for. That clearly wasn't the case.

Not only has this raised questions over the museum's procedures, but it also raises the question of whether the museum is indeed one of the best places in the world to house rare historical artefacts. And other nations are already being vocal about this as we've already seen, with the likes of the Chinese state media call for the return of their artefacts. It's no overstatement to say that the implications here could be dire for Britain Museum's global position.

We also can't overlook how 2023 has been an extremely difficult year for the BBC. Back in March, the broadcaster's director general Tim Davie was embroiled in a standoff with Gary Lineker - who was temporarily removed from Match of The Day - after criticising the government's controversial asylum policy. A day of disrupted TV scheduling followed for which Davie eventually had to apologise for while Lineker was let back into the fold following wide support from colleagues.

It doesn't stop there for the BBC. We can't forget the now partially retracted allegations made by The Sun over Huw Edwards' scandal where he was named as the presenter accused of paying a young person for sexually explicit photos and sending threatening messages to another young person. The facts still remain unclear here, but Edwards is still suspended by the BBC who only last week apologised for airing old footage of him.

And more recently we've had the ongoing Russell Brand saga where numerous women have come forward to accuse him of rape, sexual assault and harassment. Tim Davie has once again said a review will be launched into the comedian's behaviour after it was also alleged that he had used BBC cars to collect a 16-year-old from school to transport her to Russell Brand's house.

Finally, we've also seen a recent shake-up in the best universities in the UK. For only the second time in 30 years Oxbridge - the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge - was knocked off the top spot in the national league table. Instead, St Andrew's has been placed higher than these two prestigious institutions. The Scottish university is the third oldest in the English-speaking world, but it is now the best according to the much-respected rankings.

This shift here is not born out of controversy like others, but it should raise eyebrows as to why these two leading universities are falling down the pecking order in rare fashion. If these institutions are slowly being dismantled through changing public perception and unforgivable blunders, what replaces them remains to be seen.

But as serious questions are now being asked of them, we should also ask ourselves - in the case of the BBC and the British Museum - if our continuing support of them is leading to further damage.