British universities have taken four of the top six places in an international higher education table. Cambridge was ranked third in the world, followed by University College London, Imperial College and Oxford consecutively. They held their own against some of the most prestigious universities in the US, including Stanford, Yale and Princeton.
The Government said the table justified its trebling of tuition fees last year and its decision to freeze rather than cut research funding. The full impact of fee rises will not, however, be felt until next year when most undergraduates are at the higher rate, and research funding remains a more important issue for leading universities.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology held its place at the top of the table, which has been published