How less prestigious?

Speranza

I read in the New York Times:

"Miss Anscombe married Peter Geach, another Catholic convert, and was hired at Oxford; later in her career, she moved to Cambridge. Mr. Geach taught philosophy at less prestigious schools, first Birmingham and then Leeds; the “Geachcombes,” as some called them, may have had one of the first academic commuter marriages. (He commuted.)"

I would never use 'less prestigious'. Birmingham (Grice's home town) and Leeds can be magical, whereas Cambridge, to some, never IS! :)