Only ten UK institutions have made it into the Times Higher Education's list of the world's top 100 most prestigious universities.
Bristol and Durham both slipped out of the rankings, taking the UK's total down from twelve.
Oxford and Cambridge remain in the top five, but both have slipped two places since last year. In fact, of the UK universities in this year's top 100, only the London Business School has improved on its 2015 placing.
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The US continues to dominate the top of the list, which is compiled with the help of more than 10,000 academics. Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford take the first three places.
Asia has seen the biggest increase in terms of global reputation, with 17 institutions making it into the top 100, in comparison to ten last year.
Times Higher Education editor Phil Baty suggested the diminishing reputations of the UK's universities could be due to recent government decisions.
"Perhaps the UK's continued cuts in higher education funding – Higher Education Funding Council for England received a £150m budget slash this year – and a series of immigration measures affecting overseas students and scholars, are starting to have an impact on its global reputation," he said.
Paul Blackmore, professor of higher education at King's College London's Policy Institute, predicted that the rise in reputation of Asian universities was set to continue.
"We've had a highly Anglo-Saxon view of higher education for many years, and that can't be sustained for much longer," he said.
Here are the ten UK universities in the top 100:
University of Cambridge (4)
University of Oxford (5)
Imperial College London (15)
University College London (20)
London School of Economics and Political Science (24)
University of Edinburgh (38)
King's College London (43)
University of Manchester (49)
London Business School and University of Warwick (81-90)*
*Only universities in the top 50 are ranked. Those from 50-100 are ranked in groups of ten.
Top universities: UK leads the way in new European rankings
05 May
A list of the best European universities published today shows the UK continues to dominate top-quality higher education.
The latest Times Higher Education (THE) rankings includes 46 UK universities among the top 200 higher learning institutions in Europe. They were scored on key factors including teaching, research, influence and outlook for the future.
Britain is also home to the top three universities in Europe – Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London. University College London, the London School of Economics and Political Science, Edinburgh University and King's College London also make the top ten, with ETH Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology appearing at number four, making it the highest-ranked university outside of the UK.
Nipping at the UK's heels is Germany, with 36 places in the top 200. Its highest-rated university, LMU Munich, came in at number ten.
When it comes to worldwide performance, however, the US dominates, occupying six of the top ten spots in the global rankings. The California Institute of Technology knocks Oxford off the top spot, while Stanford University pushes Cambridge into fourth place.
Rankings editor Phil Baty paid a cautious tribute to the UK's success, warning that restrictive immigration policies and low tuition fees in competing nations threatened the nation's ability to attract the brightest students and staff.
"For the first time this year, the UK saw international student numbers stagnate," he said, adding that anti-immigrant rhetoric was "leading many students to perceive that they are not welcome in the UK".
Top 20 European universities
1. University of Oxford, UK
2. University of Cambridge, UK
3. Imperial College London, UK
4. ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland
5. University College London, UK
6. London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
7. University of Edinburgh, UK
8. King's College London, UK
9. Karolinska Institute, Sweden
10. LMU Munich, Germany
11. Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland
12. KU Leuven, Belgium
13. Heidelberg University, Germany
14. Wageningen University and Research Center, Netherlands
15. Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
16. Technical University of Munich, Germany
17. Ecole Normale Superieure, France
18. University of Manchester, UK
19. University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
20. Utrecht University, Netherlands
Top ten universities in the UK
01 October
The UK was the "stand-out performer" in this year's Times Higher Education World University Rankings, according to its editor Phil Baty.
With 32 institutions in the top 200 worldwide, the UK was second only to the US, as all top ten UK institutions, with the exception of Manchester, saw their rankings rise from last year.
Oxford was the highest-ranked UK university as it climbed to second place in the rankings, while Cambridge (4th) and Imperial College London (8th) also made it into the worldwide top ten.
Edinburgh University jumped 12 places to 24th, while other big movers in the UK were LSE (23rd) King's College London (27th) and Durham (70th).
Despite this year's strong showing. Baty stressed the need for UK institutions to maintain higher education spending and to continue to attract overseas students. Speaking to the BBC, he said that "despite the UK's success, continued cuts to higher education spending and a series of immigration measures will hinder its performance in the long run".
His concerns were echoed by other leading UK academics.
America's dominance continues to wane, despite its prime spot as world leader (the California Institution of Technology – Caltech – once again tops the rankings). However, the positive trend seen in the UK was mirrored across Europe with a record number of European universities (105) included in the top 200. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich became the first institution from outside the US and UK to make it into the top ten.
Baty suggested that the significant movement seen in the US, UK and abroad was is some degree down to changes in the source rankings' data, with "improved coverage of research not published in English and a better geographical spread of responses".
The results will come as a boost to UK universities which saw their rankings slide in the recent QS World University Rankings released last month. Cambridge University, the UK's second highest ranked institution, fell to third, with Oxford in sixth position.
Top ten UK universities (worldwide ranking in brackets)
1 (2) Oxford
2 (4) Cambridge
3 (80) Imperial College London
4 (14) University College London
5 (23) London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
6 (24) Edinburgh
7 (27) King's College London
8 (=56) Manchester
9 (69) Bristol
10 (70) Durham
Top ten universities worldwide
1 California Institute of Technology, US
2 University of Oxford, UK
3 Stanford University, US
4 University of Cambridge, UK
5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US
6 Harvard University, US
7 Princeton University, US
8 Imperial College London, UK
9 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland
10 University of Chicago, US
Top 20 universities in the world
15 September
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been named as the world's leading university, with just five British institutions making it into the top 20.
Harvard comes in second, while Stanford shares the third spot with Cambridge, the only UK university featured in the top five.
The QS World University Rankings, regarded as "the most authoritative of its kind", shows that British universities have slipped down the tables, says The Guardian.
One of the "biggest casualties" was Imperial College London, which dropped from second place in 2014 to eighth place this year – apparently due to a change in the methodology used to rate universities.
"Previously the QS rankings favoured universities strong in research, which is generated largely by the medical sciences, but changes have been made in order to give better recognition to institutions that are outstanding in arts and humanities but produce few citations," says the Guardian.
"As a result, Imperial, a leading research-intensive institution, which produces an impressive array of citations every year, dropped six places despite performing well in every other respect."
Oxford University and University College London, which came in joint fifth place last year, also slipped down the list to sixth and seventh place respectively. Meanwhile, Kings College London dropped three places from 16th to 19th.
US institutions make up half of the top 20, the UK makes up a quarter, while only five of the top 20 are based elsewhere in the world: two universities in Switzerland, two in Singapore and one in Australia.
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US
2 Harvard University, US
3= University of Cambridge, UK
3=Stanford University, US
5 California Institute of Technology, US
6 University of Oxford, UK
7 University College London (UCL), UK
8 Imperial College London, UK
9 ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Switzerland
10 University of Chicago, US
11 Princeton University, US
12 National University of Singapore, Singapore
13 Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
14 Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland
15 Yale University, US
16 Johns Hopkins University, US
17 Cornell University, US
18 University of Pennsylvania, US
19= Australian National University, Australia
19= King's College London, UK
Top 20 universities to study fashion design
25 August
The UK is officially the best place in the world to study fashion, home to four of the top ten institutions in a newly-released list aimed at aspiring fashion students.
Industry website Business of Fashion has released its first ranking of the world's fashion schools, and the UK has six entries in the top 20.
The universities were ranked according to three main factors – global influence, learning experience and long-term value. Business of Fashion subjected each institution to a "rigorous analysis" including a survey of more than 4,000 fashion students and alumni.
Central Saint Martins, part of the University of the Arts London, was ranked number one in the world for undergraduate fashion courses. The university offers six BA courses in fashion design, with specialisms in womenswear, menswear, print, marketing and knitwear. Additional courses focus on related disciplines, such as fashion journalism, history of fashion and fashion communications.
Despite a recent protest by students annoyed that increasing enrolment numbers meant that some students' costly fashion collections were not featured in the college's prestigious press show, CSM remains the place to be for future fashion designers.
Three other London institutions – Kingston University, the University of Westminster and the London College of Fashion –also made the top ten. Nottingham Trent and the University for the Creative Arts Epsom represented the rest of the UK, at 14th and 17th respectively.
With six British universities in the top 20, the UK ties with the US as the most represented country on the list. Italy, often considered the home of fashion, features twice – the Istituto Marangoni in Milan and the Polimoda Institute in Florence –while haute couture paradise France failed to make the cut. China and Japan both featured, with Canada, the Netherlands, Australia and Israel rounding off the top 20.
Top universities for fashion, according to Business of Fashion:
1 Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, UK
2 Bunka Fashion College, Japan
3 Kingston University, UK
4 Parsons The New School for Design, US
5 Fashion Institute of Technology, US
6 Polimoda, Italy
7 University of Westminster, UK
8 London College of Fashion, UK
9 Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia
10 Drexel University, US
11 Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art, Israel
12 Ryerson University School of Fashion, Canada
13 Stephens College, US
14 Nottingham Trent University, UK
15 Savannah College of Art and Design, US
16 Philadelphia University, US
17 University for the Creative Arts – Epsom, UK
18 Istituto Marangoni, Italy
19 Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, China
20 Hogeschool Van Amsterdam, Netherlands
The UK's top ten universities ranked by teaching satisfaction
27 May
Coventry University outshines Cambridge University when it comes to students' satisfaction with teaching standards, according to a league table published by The Guardian.
The former polytechnic came in second place, beaten only by Oxford University, with 92.7 per cent of students satisfied with the institution's teaching quality.
St Andrews and Dundee also featured in the top five, while the University of East Anglia, Bath, Keele, Glasgow and Exeter followed shortly behind.
Teaching satisfaction was among eight statistical measures used by The Guardian to compile a league table of the overall performance of UK universities, published this week. Other measures included the probability of each graduate finding a job and the amount each university spends per student.
Overall, Cambridge, Oxford and St Andrews dominated the top three spots, while Coventry reached number 15. The newspaper points out that this is "higher than many of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities, including Birmingham, Edinburgh, York, Leeds, Glasgow, Cardiff, Nottingham and Newcastle" and "the highest position ever achieved by a former polytechnic in the Guardian league table of universities".
The only institution to fall out of the top ten was the London School of Economics (LSE), which dropped from 7th to 13th position, while the University of Exeter moved up from 12th to 9th place.
Top ten UK universities by teaching satisfaction
1. Oxford
2. Coventry
3. Cambridge
4. St Andrews
5. Dundee
6. University of East Anglia
7. Bath
8. Keele
9. Glasgow
10. Exeter
Top ten UK universities in The Guardian's overall league table
1. Cambridge
2. Oxford
3. St Andrews
4. Surrey
5. Bath
6. Durham
7. Warwick
8. Imperial College
9. Exeter
10. Lancaster
The UK's top ten universities ranked by job prospects
05 May
Cambridge and Oxford are outperformed by London universities when it comes to graduate job prospects, according to statistics from the Complete University Guide (CUG).
Graduates from Imperial College London currently have the best chance of finding a professional job within six months of leaving university, while St George's, University of London, is close behind in second place.
While Cambridge tops CUG's league table for overall best university, it comes in third place for job prospects. Oxford, second overall, languishes in seventh place for job prospects, beaten by Bath, Birmingham and the London School of Economics. Nevertheless, many Oxford graduates have gone on to find success in their chosen field; the university has produced 26 British prime ministers, at least 30 international leaders, 50 Nobel Prize winners and 120 Olympic medal winners.
Cardiff University, University College London and the University of Surrey also made it into the top ten for employment opportunities.
The league table shows that 89.9 per cent of graduates from Imperial College London were in professional jobs or postgraduate study six months after leaving in 2013.
The Daily Telegraph says Imperial's civil engineering graduates have gone on to work in high-profile national and international engineering projects, including China's Three Gorges Dam, London's new Wembley Stadium and the new Antarctic research station. Its computing department also has close ties to Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and BT.
The newspaper says that 100 per cent of graduates on St George's medicine programmes are in employment within six months of course completion.
At the bottom of the table, just 44.6 per cent of London Metropolitan graduates had found a professional job or entered further education within six months.
Top ten UK universities by job prospects
1 Imperial College London
2 St George's, University of London
3 University of Cambridge
4 University of Bath
5 University of Birmingham
6 London School of Economics
7 University of Oxford
8 Cardiff University
9 University College London
10 University of Surrey
CUG's overall top ten UK universities for 2016
1 University of Cambridge
2 University of Oxford
3 London School of Economics
4 Imperial College London
5 Durham University
=5 University of St Andrews
7 University of Warwick
8 University of Surrey
9 Lancaster University
10 University College London
The UK's top ten universities ranked by happiness
09 April
Students at the University of Bath are the happiest in the UK, according to this year's Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey.
Bath was rated highly by students in all 21 aspects surveyed, from quality of academic staff and degree courses to teaching facilities and community atmosphere.
Other measures of satisfaction, voted on by almost 14,700 students, included social life, extracurricular activities, accommodation and cheap amenities.
Sheffield University, which topped the chart last year, dropped down to third place, while Loughborough University leapt up to second place from 11th last year and ranked first for sports facilities.
Cambridge and Oxford appeared in the fourth and fifth spot respectively, while Surrey University jumped from 34th place in 2014 to joint sixth place, with University of East Anglia.
Dundee was rated the highest out of Scotland's universities, coming 12th in the UK, while Cardiff was the most popular in Wales, at joint 29th.
The average overall score for UK universities was down from last year by 0.8 per cent, from 75.5 to 74.7.
John Gill, editor of Times Higher Education, said this might be down to the growth of some universities. "The easing of student number controls has led to significant expansion by some universities and competition for students is set to increase further with the uncapping of student places this autumn," he told The Times. "This is putting new pressure on the student experience as institutions change in size and shape."
Times Higher Education also notes that 11 out of the top 20 universities are campus-based.
Top ten UK universities by happiness in 2015
1 University of Bath
2 Loughborough University
3 University of Sheffield
4 University of Cambridge
5 University of Oxford
6 University of Surrey
=6 University of East Anglia
8 University of Exeter
9 University of Leeds
10 Newcastle University
The UK's top ten universities ranked by reputation
12 March
The University of Cambridge has been ranked as the university with the best reputation in the UK, and is beaten only by Harvard University worldwide.
Times Higher Education (THE) has published the top 100 universities in the world by reputation, which features 12 UK institutions.
Cambridge and Oxford overtook the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University this year to take the second and third spots respectively.
Durham University and the University of Warwick also made it into the top 100 for the first time, boosting the number of UK universities from 10 to 12 since last year.
The US continues to dominate the table, filling 43 of the top 100 spots.
The list was compiled using a survey of 10,500 academics across the world. "The reputation league table is based on nothing more than subjective judgement," says THE, "but it is the considered expert judgement of senior, published academics – the people best placed to know the most about excellence in our universities."
Top ten world universities by reputation in 2015
1 Harvard University, United States
2 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
3 University of Oxford, United Kingdom
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States
5 Stanford University, United States
6 University of California, Berkeley, United States
7 Princeton University, United States
8 Yale University, United States
9 California Institute of Technology, United States
10 Columbia University, United States
Top ten UK universities by reputation in 2015
1 University of Cambridge (worldwide ranking: 2)
2 University of Oxford (worldwide ranking: 3)
3 Imperial College London (worldwide ranking: 14)
4 University College London (worldwide ranking: 17)
5 London School of Economics and Political Science (worldwide ranking: 22)
6 University of Edinburgh (worldwide ranking: 29)
7 King's College London (worldwide ranking: 31)
8 University of Manchester (worldwide ranking: 50)
9 Durham University (worldwide ranking: 81-90*)
=9 University of Warwick (worldwide ranking: 81-90*)
*Only universities in the top 50 were ranked. Those from 50-100 were ranked in groups of ten. London Business School and the University of Bristol came in the 91-100 group.
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