Oxford and Cambridge slip down the world’s university rankings – as two red-bricks drop out of the 100
As students prepare to get stuck into their A-Levels, the Times Higher Education has published its annual ranking of the world's universities.
The good news is that UK universities make up 10 per cent of the world's 100 highest-ranked institutions. The bad news? We've lost two from the top 100 – while our top two have slipped down.
For the sixth year in a row, Harvard came top of the list, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT to its friends) and Stanford.
Meanwhile, the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford both slipped two places, to take the fourth and fifth spots respectively – while Bristol and Durham have both been knocked out of the top 100 altogether.
With 43 institutions in the top 100, the US is the best-represented country. The UK follows, with 10 (down from 12 last year).
Asia had 17 institutions in the ranking, with China breaking into the list for the first time, with Tsinghua University hitting 18th place, while Peking University came in at number 21.
Phil Baty, THE's rankings editor, pointed to funding cuts.
"Perhaps the UK’s continued cuts in higher education funding – Higher Education Funding Council for England received a £150m budget slash this year – and series of immigration measures affecting overseas students and scholars, are starting to have an impact on its global reputation.
"The UK will have to ensure that it can still draw in talent and investment from across the world and it does not lose its position at the heart of higher education’s global elite."
The world's top universities
| 2016 rank | 2015 rank | Institution | Country |
| 1 | 1 | Harvard University | US |
| 2 | 4 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | US |
| 3 | 5 | Stanford University | US |
| 4 | 2 | University of Cambridge | UK |
| 5 | 3 | University of Oxford | UK |
| 6 | 6 | University 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 |
| 11 | 11 | University of Chicago | US |
| 12 | 12 | University of Tokyo | Japan |
| 13 | 13 | University of California, Los Angeles | US |
| 14 | 19 | University of Michigan | US |
| 15 | 14 | Imperial College London | UK |
| 16 | 23 | University of Pennsylvania | US |
| 17 | 20 | Cornell University | US |
| 18 | 26 | Tsinghua University | China |
| 19 | 15 | ETH Zürich | Switzerland |
| 20 | 17 | University College London | UK |
| 21 | 32 | Peking University | China |
| 22 | 18 | Johns Hopkins University | US |
| 23 | 16 | University of Toronto | Canada |
| 24 | 22 | London School of Economics | UK |
| 25 | 20 | New York University | US |
| 26 | 24 | National University of Singapore | Singapore |
| 27 | 27 | Kyoto University | Japan |
| 28 | 34 | Duke University | US |
| 29 | 33 | University of Washington | US |
| 30 | 30 | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | US |