United Kingdom improves standing in World University Rankings with three universities in

The Times Higher Education listing emphasizes research and research reputation more strongly than a few other rankings of universities.

The annual Times Higher Education list, in its 12th year, is among the world’s most influential rankings of colleges and universities.

The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has been placed top of the world university rankings for the fifth consecutive year, while Harvard University has dropped to sixth place.

“It is particularly pleasing that, as a genuinely worldwide community, there has been particular focus on our global outlook, which is so fundamental to our ethos and the approach of our students and scholars, and which brings such benefits back to our region and to the United Kingdom”. Glasgow University comes next at 76th, improving on its ranking of 94 previous year.

“Whether this is through new forms of access and apprentices, a focus on enterprise for students or research which changes lives, we believe this must be the true measure of our success”.

The result is St Andrews’ highest ever placing and puts the Fife institution inside the top 0.5% of the 20,000 universities known to exist across the globe, while Dundee has built on being named Scottish University of the Year in The Ties and Sunday Times Good University Guide last month.

The majority of United Kingdom universities have moved up the rankings this year, a few – such as the University of Warwick, University of St Andrews and the University of Exeter – considerably so.

Twenty-nine new countries have entries this year, including Indonesia, Ghana, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Latvia, Qatar and Ukraine.

“These rankings confirm the world-class standing of our higher education sector”.

Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities United Kingdom, said: “This table, and other rankings, suggest that the United Kingdom continues to possess, by a few margin, one of the strongest university systems in the world”.

“What it means in practice is that universities are always pushing to deliver more and better in every aspect of what they do”.

“What is clear, however, is that if we want to maintain this leading position, we must start matching our competitors’ increased investment in higher education”.

“The USA will have to raise its game to ensure its dominance does not erode”, he said.