1. Harvard University, United States (1)

2. University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (3)

3. Yale University, United States (2)

4. University College London, United Kingdom (7)

5. Imperial College London, United Kingdom (6)

6. University of Oxford, United Kingdom (4)

7. University of Chicago, United States (8)

8. Princeton University, United States (12)

9. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States (9)

10. California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States (5)

11. Columbia University, United States (10)

12. University of Pennsylvania, United States (11)

13. Johns Hopkins University, United States (13)

14. Duke University, United States (13)

15. Cornell University, United States (15)

16. Stanford University, United States (17)

17. Australian National University, Australia (16)

18. McGill University, Canada (20)

19. University of Michigan, United States (18)

20. ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Switzerland (24)

21. University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (23)

22. University of Tokyo, Japan (19)

23. King’s College London, United Kingdom (22)

24. University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (26)

25. Kyoto University, Japan (25)

26. University of Manchester, United Kingdom (29)

27. Carnegie Mellon University, United States (21)

28. Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, France (28)

29. University of Toronto, Canada (41)

30. National University of Singapore, Singapore (30)

31. Brown University, United States (27)

32. Northwestern University, United States (33)

32. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States (30)

34. University of Bristol, United Kingdom (32)

35. Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Hong Kong (39)

36. Ecole Polytechnique, France (34)

36. The University of Melbourne, Australia (38)

36. The University of Sydney, Australia (37)

39. University of California, Berkeley, United States (36)

40. University of British Columbia, Canada (34)

41. University of Queensland, Australia (43)

42. Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland (50)

43. Osaka University, Japan (44)

43. Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland (49)

45. Monash University, Australia (47)

46. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (42)

47. Seoul National University, Korea (50)

47. University of New South Wales, Australia (45)

49. Tsinghua University, China (56)

49. University of Amsterdam, Netherlands (53)

Times recommends

• Head of Yale 'Leave universities to tackle social inequality'
• Mandelson angers universities with budget claims
• University governors resign after funding row