British universities are in danger of being overtaken by their global rivals, according to rankings published today.
Oxford and Cambridge remain part of an elite group of six universities, all in Britain or the US, which are internationally recognised as “superbrands”. Cambridge ranks third and Oxford sixth, with Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in first and second place.
But only ten British universities feature in the Times Higher Education magazine world reputation rankings this year, compared with 12 last year. America has 44 institutions in the top 100. Imperial College London fell from 11th to 13th place this year, University College London from 19th to 21st, Edinburgh from 45th to 49th and Bristol dropped out of the 81-90 group and into the 91-100 band.
Sheffield University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have fallen out of the top 100 altogether.
The table is compiled using the responses of 17,500 senior academics in 137 countries to a poll carried out by Ipsos. They were asked to nominate up to 15 of the best institutions in their field of expertise.
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“Make no mistake, this data should be uncomfortable news for the UK,” Phil Baty, rankings editor at Times Higher Education, said. “Our global reputation as the home of outstanding universities has been hit.
“There is a clear risk that our universities, other than the elite ‘superbrands’ of Oxford and Cambridge, will be relegated from the ‘Premier League’ of institutions in the eyes of the world, with tangible and sustained damage.”
Mr Baty said there was a widening gap between the best and the rest, with the top six pulling well clear. Oxford and Cambridge are in the same place as last year and Britain still has the second-highest number of universities in the rankings. Japan and the Netherlands both have five institutions each, while Germany, Australia and France have four each.
Asian institutions were among the fastest climbers. Tsinghua University in China rose from 35th last year to 30th and Peking University was up from 43rd to 38th. The University of Hong Kong went from 42nd last year to 39th and National Taiwan University rose from the 81-90 band into the 61-70 group.
There are 19 countries with universities in the top 100, including Brazil, Israel, France, Belgium, Turkey (a new entrant, with the Middle East Technical University) and Canada. Switzerland, with a population of under eight million, has three universities in the rankings.
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“In a competitive global marketplace, the universities who enjoy the best reputations get to reap the spoils — taking their pick of the best professors, creaming off the most talented students, attracting research partnerships, business contracts [and] benefactors,” Mr Baty added. “When it comes to prestige, the winner takes all.
“In today’s fast-moving and interconnected world, universities cannot sit back and rely on their history. New forces are emerging and signs of declining performance are quickly identified. Established reputations can be highly vulnerable.”
Wendy Piatt, Director-General of the Russell Group, representing Britain’s leading universities, said: “The UK’s universities punch well above their weight and their global reputation remains very strong. But we are concerned that our competitors in the US, East Asia and Europe are pumping billions into higher education — and money matters. The UK already spends a lower proportion of GDP on higher education than our rivals and our universities are already doing more with less.
“If the UK is to remain a global leader in higher education, the Government must concentrate investment where it will have the most impact: in our world-class universities.”
•England is no longer a leading nation when it comes to literacy, after a period of four years during which progress in primary schools stalled, Sir Michael Wilshaw, the head of Ofsted, will tell head teachers in a speech today. One in five children does not meet the expected standard of literacy on leaving primary school, with no improvement since 2008. Almost a third of children fail to achieve a grade of C or higher in GCSE English and one in seven adults lacks basic literacy skills.
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The Top Ten
1 Harvard
2 Massachusetts Inst of Technology
3 Cambridge
4 Stanford
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5 California, Berkeley
6 Oxford
7 Princeton
8 Tokyo
9 California, Los Angeles
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10 Yale