Harvard; Still Best University Worldwide

A table of leading world universities shows Harvard is still the best University worldwide, followed by Cambridge with Oxford slipping from fourth to the fifth position. The table also shows a fall in the number of North American universities in the top 100 from 42 in 2008 to 36 in 2009. The sixth Times Higher Education table is based on a survey of academics and graduate employers worldwide. There are 39 European universities in the top 100, up from 36. The number of Asian universities rose from 14 to 16. Harvard is still top, while Cambridge moves up from third to second place. Oxford slips from fourth to fifth rank. University College London jumped up three places from seventh to fourth. The University of Tokyo, at 22nd, is the highest ranked Asian university and the University of Hong Kong moved up two places from 26th to 24th. A new classification in the rankings differentiates between generalist universities and specialist institutions. Europe does well in this section, with the top specialist social science university being the London School of Economics and the top specialist engineering university being the �cole normale sup�rieure in Paris.