Top 100 universities in the world revealed

British universities have been named the best in the world for a second year running, this time boasting the two top positions in the prestigious World University Rankings.

Oxford University is ranked in first place in this year’s table, after beating US champion the California Institute of Technology for the first time last year.

An even greater achievement, arguably, was seen by rival Cambridge this year, as the institution jumped from fourth place up to second thanks to a perceived improvement in research quality.

It’s the first time in the 13-year history of the rankings that two European institutions take the top two spots.

Switzerland’s ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich) also clings onto a spot in the top 10, after dropping one place from ninth to joint 10th. Meanwhile, Trinity College Dublin has jumped 14 places to 117th this year.

Italy and Spain both have new number ones thanks to large rises for two of their institutions: Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and Pompeu Fabra University.

But the rise of Asia is becoming an increasing threat to Europe’s standing in the rankings, its authors said.

China’s two leading universities now outrank Germany’s top institution, LMU Munich.

Germany also has two fewer institutions in the top 200; of the 20 institutions that still make this cohort, 12 have slipped.

Tsinghua University has also overtaken Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, and Peking University now outranks the Karolinska Institute and is on a par with the University of Edinburgh.

Europe now has seven institutions in the top 30 while Asia has three. Last year these figures were 10 and two respectively.

Phil Baty, editorial director of the global rankings, said: “Europe is one of the leading regions in the THE World University Rankings and is now home to more than half of the top-200 spots (101 compared to 99 last year).

“The University of Cambridge’s rise to second place, in particular, is a fantastic achievement, while other improvements show the strength of the region amid increasing global competition.

“But there are signs that Asia is starting to threaten the position of some of Europe’s leading institutions, while Brexit poses a huge risk to the success of UK universities in the future. Europe will need to work hard to ensure it can sustain its performance in future years.”

The rankings, devised annually by Times Higher Education, judge research-intensive universities across all their core missions: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.