UK universities outside London dropping down global league table

5 March 2014

The number of UK universities in the world's top 100 based on reputation has fallen from 12 to 10 in the three years since rankings began in 2011.

Only London-based universities saw their reputations improve this year, according to the latest tables released today by Times Higher Education.

Although 10 UK universities in the top 100 is an improvement on last year's nine, the University of Bristol has dropped out of the top 100, following the University of Leeds, who went last year, and the University of Sheffield in 2012. The University of Manchester this year dropped out of the top 50.

UCU said the tables showed that UK universities continued to punch above their weight. However, the union said that unless we properly invest in our universities, we risked undermining our standing on the global stage.

UCU said that, while the tables were at best only a partial guide to the strength of academic capacity, it looked like a good year for London universities. All six London institutions saw their position improve. The other four UK representatives saw their standing fall, apart from Scotland's sole representative, the University of Edinburgh, (a non-mover at number 46).

Eight of the UK's 10 representatives are now based in the south-east with six in London. Cambridge and Oxford remain in the top 10, despite both dropping one place, to fourth and fifth respectively.

US and UK institutions dominate the top positions with Harvard once again crowned the world's best university based on reputation alone. Only Japan, Switzerland and Canada can boast institutions in the top 20, apart from the US and UK.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'The UK continues to punch above its weight on the global stage, but as other countries invest in their universities and move up global league tables, we risk being overtaken.

'While these tables are at best only a partial guide to the strength of academic capacity, our higher education sector is a success story and ministers should be doing all they can to help it progress. Other countries recognise the value of their universities and if we do not match their investment we will struggle to maintain our position.'

Tables

The Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2014: Full Tables

THE WRR 2014	THE WRR 2013	Institution name	Country / Region
1	1	Harvard University	US
2	2	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	US
3	6	Stanford University	US
4	3	University of Cambridge	UK
5	4	University of Oxford	UK
6	5	University of California, Berkeley	US
7	7	Princeton University	US
8	10	Yale University	US
9	11	California Institute of Technology	US
10	8	University of California, Los Angeles	US
11	9	University of Tokyo	Japan
12	13	Columbia University	US
13	=14	Imperial College London	UK
14	=14	University of Chicago	US
15	12	University of Michigan	US
16	=20	ETH Zürich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich	Switzerland
17	17	Cornell University	US
18	19	Johns Hopkins University	US
19	23	Kyoto University	Japan
20	16	University of Toronto	Canada
21	22	National University of Singapore	Singapore
22	18	University of Pennsylvania	US
23	24	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	US
24	25	London School of Economics and Political Science	UK
25	20	University College London	UK
26	41	Seoul National University	South Korea
27	29	New York University	US
28	30	University of Wisconsin-Madison	US
29	26	Carnegie Mellon University	US
30	=31	Duke University	US
31	=27	University of Washington	US
32	40	University of California, San Francisco	US
33	=31	University of British Columbia	Canada
33	=31	McGill University	Canada
33	=27	University of Texas at Austin	US
36	35	Tsinghua University	China
37	37	Northwestern University	US
38	38	Georgia Institute of Technology	US
39	51-60	Pennsylvania State University	US
40	34	University of California, San Diego	US
41	45	Peking University	China
42	51-60	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands
43	36	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
43	61-70	King's College London	UK
43	39	University of Melbourne	Australia
46	46	University of Edinburgh	UK
46	44	Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München	Germany
48	=50	Purdue University	US
49	51-60	École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	Switzerland
50	51-60	Osaka University	Japan
51-60	48	University of California, Davis	US
51-60	61-70	Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong
51-60	61-70	Karolinska Institute	Sweden
51-60	61-70	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology	South Korea
51-60	47	University of Manchester	UK
51-60	51-60	University of Minnesota	US
51-60	50	Lomonosov Moscow State University	Russian Federation
51-60	51-60	Ohio State University	US
51-60	51-60	National Taiwan University	Taiwan
51-60	61-70	Tokyo Institute of Technology	Japan
61-70	42	Australian National University	Australia
61-70	51-60	University of California, Santa Barbara	US
61-70	42	University of Massachusetts	US
61-70	71-80	Michigan State University	US
61-70	51-60	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	US
61-70	71-80	Universität Heidelberg	Germany
61-70	61-70	University of Southern California	US
61-70	49	University of Sydney	Australia
61-70	61-70	Technische Universität München	Germany
61-70	61-70	Tohoku University	Japan
71-80	81-90	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
71-80	81-90	Boston University	US
71-80	71-80	Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin	Germany
71-80	-	Indiana University	US
71-80	71-80	Katholieke Universiteit Leuven	Belgium
71-80	51-60	Middle East Technical University	Turkey
71-80	71-80	Université Paris-Sorbonne	France
71-80	71-80	University of Pittsburgh	US
71-80	91-100	Texas A&M University	US
71-80	81-90	Washington University in St Louis	US
81-90	81-90	Brown University	US
81-90	81-90	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
81-90	91-100	Freie Universität Berlin	Germany
81-90	61-70	Leiden University	Netherlands
81-90	91-100	University of Maryland, College Park	US
81-90	-	Mayo Medical School	US
81-90	71-80	University of Queensland	Australia
81-90	61-70	University of São Paulo	Brazil
81-90	81-90	Utrecht University	Netherlands
81-90	-	Yonsei University	South Korea
91-100	-	University of Arizona	US
91-100	81-90	University of Florida	US
91-100	-	London Business School	UK
91-100	-	London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine	UK
91-100	71-80	Nanyang Technological University	Singapore
91-100	81-90	University of New South Wales	Australia
91-100	81-90	Université Pierre et Marie Curie	France
91-100	81-90	Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey	US
91-100	-	RWTH Aachen University	Germany
91-100	-	Technion Israel Institute of Technology	Israel

The Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2014: State Of The Nations - Number Of Representatives From Each Country In The Top 100

Country	Number of institutions in the top 100	Top institution	Top institution rank
US	46	Harvard University	1
UK	10	University of Cambridge	4
Germany	6	Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München	=46
Japan	5	University of Tokyo	11
Australia	5	University of Melbourne	=43
Netherlands	4	Delft University of Technology	42
Canada	3	University of Toronto	20
South Korea	3	Seoul National University	26
Hong Kong	3	University of Hong Kong	=43
Switzerland	2	ETH Zürich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich	16
Singapore	2	National University of Singapore	21
China	2	Tsinghua University	36
France	2	Université Paris-Sorbonne	71-80
Taiwan	1	National Taiwan University	51-60
Sweden	1	Karolinska Institute	51-60
Russia	1	Lomonosov Moscow State University	51-60
Turkey	1	Middle East Technical University	71-80
Belgium	1	Katholieke Universiteit Leuven	71-80
Brazil	1	University of São Paulo	81-90
Israel	1	Technion Israel Institute of Technology	91-100

Last updated: 10 December 2015

PrintPrint this page
Share

UK universities outside London dropping down global league table

Tables

The Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2014: Full Tables

The Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2014: State Of The Nations - Number Of Representatives From Each Country In The Top 100

Contacts

UCU press office

Related links

Comments