Britain’s foremost universities have slipped down world rankings as Asian institutions climb the table.
Although Britain’s universities remained the second strongest in the world, based on international academic reputations, two dropped out of the top 100.
The University of Cambridge was rated fourth in the world, down from second last year, while Oxford slipped from third to fifth. Imperial College London, University College London and the London School of Economics also lost ground, as did Edinburgh and King’s College London.
The University of Manchester, London Business School and the University of Warwick gained slightly on their positions last year but Bristol and Durham lost their places among the world’s leading 100 universities ranked by academic reputation.
The United States continued to dominate, with 43 universities in the top 100. Harvard was in top slot for the sixth consecutive year.
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology was ranked second, with Stanford University third. University of California, Berkeley, was sixth, followed by Princeton, Yale and Colombia.
The University of Tokyo kept its position in 12th place, while Tsinghua University in Beijing rose from 26th place to 18th. Peking University climbed from 32nd place to 21st. A total of 18 Asian universities featured in the world’s top 100 rated educational institutions.
The World Reputation Rankings, published by Times Higher Education, are based on results of an invitation-only academic opinion survey carried out between January and March to which 10,323 academics from 133 countries responded.
Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group of leading research universities, said: “We outperform many larger nations but this is no time to rest on our laurels. These rankings can be seen as a warning that the rest of the world is catching up with us and Asian universities, in particular, are snapping at our heels.
“We risk losing out on further business and overseas funding unless there is greater investment in our world-class universities and a more risk-based, proportionate approach to regulation.”
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Governments in several Asian countries have invested heavily in their higher education institutions, in particular by building their research capacity and encouraging academics to publish papers in international journals. Citations from these academic papers play an important role in global rankings.
Phil Baty, Times Higher Education rankings editor, said: “The UK’s diminishing performance occurs as institutions in Asia rapidly rise up the table; the continent has 17 representatives, up from ten last year.
“Perhaps the UK’s continued cuts in higher education funding — the Higher Education Funding Council for England received a £150 million 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.”
The new ranking is the first time a Chinese university has figured in the top 20 in such an international table, while other universities from China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea also strengthened their positions.
Britain’s diminished position was mirrored across Europe, with four of Germany’s top universities dropping down the table although two more joined the top 100.
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Four of Holland’s five leading universities lost ground. Denmark and Finland saw universities slip out of the ranking, although Sweden’s two leading universities reappeared in the table and France improved its position, with five institutions among the world’s best regarded 100.
Paul Blackmore, professor of higher education at the Policy Institute at King’s College London, said: “We have had a highly Anglo-Saxon view of higher education for many years and that can’t be sustained for much longer.”
Global rankings
World’s best
1 (1) Harvard University, US
2 (4) Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US
3 (5) Stanford University, US
4 (2) University of Cambridge
5 (3)University of Oxford 6 (6) Universty of California, Berkeley, US
7 (7) Princeton University, US
8 (8) Yale University, US
9 (10) Columbia University, US
10 (9) California Institute of Technology, US
British universities
15 (14) Imperial College London
20 (17) University College London
24 (22) London School of Economics and Political Science
38 (29) University of Edinburgh
43 (31) King’s College London
=49 (50) University of Manchester
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Selected others
12 (12) University of Tokyo, Japan
18 (26) Tsinghua University, China
21 (32) Peking University, China
Source: Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings. Last year’s position in brackets