Britain has four of the world’s top six universities thanks to their strong international reputations among academics and employers.
The University of Cambridge shares second place with Imperial College London in the global ranking, pushing Harvard to fourth position.
Oxford is joint fifth with University College London, above prestigious American universities such as Stanford, Princeton and Yale. Massachusetts Institute of Technology held the top slot for the third consecutive year.
Two other British institutions make the top 20: King’s College London (16th) and the University of Edinburgh (joint 17th). The universities of Bristol and Manchester are also among the 30 highest performers.
The publisher, QS, which has compiled rankings for the past ten years, said that these were the strongest it had recorded for British