The most common international rating exercises for universities are carried out by Chinese institutions and these also show a predominance of Western institutions. Any inaccuracy (if there is any) is methodological, simply the incompleteness of what can be measured to represent "quality".

Peter, Surbiton, UK

these rankings are just terrible.
princeton is ranked #12? unbelievable. princeton is better than yale
there's so much bias towards uk universities here too.
university of michigan is above washington university? wtheck?
they have no idea what they're talking about

sarah, chicago,

there are also many fine unis in china while a list for west world,our uni is famous for its petrol cause

freya, shangdong , china

How about Indian Universities? I am surprised that not one made it to your list. Or do only European and US ones count? Along with a sprinkling from SE Asia? Our IITs are world class yet only IIT Bombay figures and ranked No: 173, below Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. Something wrong methinks!

Dharani Kothandapani, Chennai, India

Funny - Europeans love nothing more than to go on about how stupid Americans are, and yet the top two universities in the world are in the US - beating out the UK's beloved Oxbridge! hmmm

Mary, London,

Furthermore, what is the quality of a ranking, when the people doing it believe that Zurich is in Sweden and universities get ranked in the fields they don't even cover (check out .pdf):

http://www.unisg.ch/org/hsg/rankings.nsf/wwwPubInhalteEng/Times+Higher+Education+Supplement+Ranking?opendocument

Mark, Bern,

18 of the best unis are in English-speaking countries. Then how come the US and UK hardly produce anything that anybody wants to buy when the export champions Germany and Japan have such poor universities? Just compare the quality of German or Japanese engineering to US/UK engineering...

Mark, Bern,

So Lehman , Merryl, Bearn stern and this world crisis came from Ivy league grad,
how about Ferraris Mercedes and Japanese technologies are all made in the USA or am I mistaken, why US top the education rank and the brain are some where else other than the US.

Tario, Dubai, UAE

it is like the Nobel prizes... by the west, for the west ...with so many people from India and China doing well in the west ..surely there must be something good abt the universities in these countries...imaculate elegant classrooms and hi tech gadgets dont always make a university good

sree, Mumbai, India

There are many very fine universities in the US that didn't make this list, such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Virginia. Harvard, of course, is the wealthiest private university in the world. That is , it is not owned or sponsored by any government.

XRX, Washington, DC, USA

I work with a graduate of Monash (no 47). She's had 5 complaints of harrasment made against her, gets to work at 10:30 and didn't see anything wrong with taking a week's leave without booking it! If she represents that uni then it should be down with Luton Uni and NE Surrey College!

Luke, London, UK

This list is TOTAL JOKE !
Where are :

Heidelberg University (Germany )
Plus at least other 10 Universities in Germany, France, Switzerland.
Moscow State University
St.Petersburg University
Novosibirsk University

Kako, Tbilisi, Georgia

Does anyone seriously believe that the universities of Leicester, Lancaster and Sussex are better than the University of Bologna? Anyone who knows students from Bologna and from some of the UK's less august institutions can tell you that there is a world of difference between them.

Mary, London,

Aussies should be proud that the ANU is right up there with the best unis in the world! Consideing that oxford and cambridge at hundreds of years old (c. 1200) with Harvard 1600s, and ANU has only been around for about 60 years, this is a fantastic achievement!

Julia, London,

methodology for selection is missing

Aggregation bias is another snag

Dr. lalwani
Mumbai India

Dr. mahesh lalwani, mumbai, india

Thanks for the ranking.But where is Zhejiang University (China)?I think she deserve it:)

Lz, Hz, China

so..where is RMIT, Melbourne? oh..I'm disappointed with this rank for my uni is not there. =(

Ji Young, Seoul, South Korea

I'm glad Fudan Univ made 113rd, not bad for a chinese univ. I like UK univs very much especially those with long history. However, I personally think some of the universities in UK is over-ranked.

Sunny, Shanghai, China

I went to Michigan State University as an undergraduate which was ranked ca 70 for the past 6 years. Now it is not among the top 200. So much for your ratings. US News and World Report ranks by fields both undergraduate and graduate, the only way one can really rank a university.

Leslie, Princeton, USA

so.... there are only three universities in asia that rank better than uni of bristol???

a total joke. embarrassing.

alex de beau col, London, UK

Tosh! This contradicts the order of British Universities' rankings that were published recently. Anyway - not all of the courses rank in this order either. Just another time wasting exercise.

Sam, Hampshire,

Go McGill Go!

Saeed, Montreal, Canada

Fab - my unis rank 23rd, 57th and 153rd.. I really ought to go and get a job now...

Alison, Edinburgh, UK

Better for what?

R James, Bristol,

Harvard and Yale the world's top two universities? Ridiculous! Remember the Scriptures on trees? "Ye shall know them by their fruits" and such like? Well, the best-known alumnus having been taught at BOTH universities is none other, than the greatest fraud this planet has ever seen: George "W" Bush!

Roel, Leuven, Belgium

A quantitative analysis of universities engenders facile results. However, it is fair to say that, dilettantism permeates our post modern society. Thus, the economic configuration of society has engendered such an academic culture.

Philip Rewcroft, Scarborough,

Ok...now I understand how top British Uni's may be trumped by International ones but how do the British ones swap which order they appeared in in the Times last week??? Leeds above Durham etc???

Sarah, Durham,

Loughborough was very recently recognised (no more than three weeks ago) by the Sunday Times as University of the Year. In the same survey, Loughborough was rated 11th overall.

I am therefore struggling to understand its absence from this list of 200.

Wayne, Derby,

A ridiculous exercise. Biased around english speaking unis too. What uni's good for teaching isn't necessarily good for research (ideally it is for both). As an academic at an NZ university, its hard to see how any NZ uni's would make the top 200. Pockets of excellence exist here but thats all

Martin, Wellington, NZ

Why is lancaster 170?! In every other poll its top 20 easily!

Gill, London,

What a joke. There is no credibility in these rankings. Note for example, that hardly any German universities (1st one is Heidelberg = 57), yet Germany happens to produce some of the best and most educated business people, scientists and engineers anywhere in the world. Enough of stupid rankings!

Andrew , London, UK

If a student were given offers to Stanford and Imperial, which one would he/ she take? I think most would say Stanford. I think these rankings already way boosted the positions of UK universities. Regarding the Int'l student criteria, is it good for a school to have few local students like LSE?

Grace, London,

I'm starting a list of "Worst University Rankings"...this is #1...

Dan, SoCal, USA

UK instituions should have higher ranking. Ox/CAM should among the top, and IC/UCL/Man/ED should be in top 20. Besides, all top 30 UK university should be on the list.

richard, london, uk

Anyone who's actually gone to University, ie none of your "readers", would recognise that this list has no bearing on reality. There are only two UK schools, possibly three if you include LSE (and why would you?), that are internationally recognised. Difficulty of entrance speaks for itself.

Jackie Du Prey, London/NY, UK/US

It's cobblers designed to make UK academics feel good! Have a look at some US Universities - apart from Cambridge, we haven't got anything that touches them. Our unis are falling down, and our Nobel prize rate is pretty weedy too. The Chinese uni ratings are more balanced: 2 UK unis in the top 20.

John Fenwick, Southport, UK

where is LSE?!

Rigo, London, london

All these lists are a waste of time - no rationale for selection. As one person has stated - weighted to English language institutions.

Why would Leeds be higher than Queens, McMaster or University of Western Ontario? All superb.

These should be based on the quality of their output. Students.

Paul, Toronto, Canada

since when did oxbridge come behind harvard and yale? since i left cambridge?? what IS this based on - what universities might get rated in parallel universes? harvard and yale don't even have their own abbreviation, (eg yalehar!) did anyone think of that?

Emma Ireland, Ormskirk, UK

It's not about course choices but how succesful they are in producing well-educated graduates!!

Katy, London, UK

what about the university of malta which dates back to knights of malta circa sixteen century

michael, malta,

I've studied in Dutch universities and in German ones. The accademic plans are poor of authors and contents. Lectures and the required knowledge are just an outline of the subject. It's not an accademic training. Where are Luiss and Bocconi? Better than a lot of public European universities!

adriana bonomo, rome, italy

This list is a joke. While the top seems relatively fair , it only gets more humorous as you continue. Boston University, Arizona, Pittsburgh, UMass Amherst, Texas A&M, Rutgers, and Colorado combined should not hack this list. Boston College should replace BU and LSE needs to be much, much higher.

Colin, London, UK

The LSE, despite its reputation and wealth, cannot be compared with multi-faculty universities like Cambridge, UCL or even other specialist schools such as Imperial College London. The LSE offers 36 courses, Imperial College London 109 and University College London 275. (Source: Ucas)

Jacinta, London, UK

Colin from Oslo.

The colleges of The University of London are not colleges in the same sense as those at Oxbridge. I am a student at UCL, which awards degrees in its own name despite being part of the University of London.

Camilla Foster, London,

UCL in 7th ! greatttt

Cherry, Malvern,

yes UCL is 7th! haha King's

rachel, london, England

In my opinion, organizators of the ranking had forgotten Boğaziçi University in Turkey. Certainly, this university is one of the best 200 universities...

Sarper, Istanbul, Turkey

The selection criteria is wrong. The list ignores top universities like London School of Economics because of the so-called 'narrow scope' of the programmes offered despite it being one of the premier social science universities, ranking next to the likes of Oxbridge.

Andrew, London, UL

Jimbo, St Andrews is so low compared to the Times UK list beacuse that list includes such criteria as "how much fun you have," while this list is based on academic citations, Nobel prizes and quality of teaching. That's why Edinburgh is top Scottish university by a mile. But you'll have fun.

John, Inverness, UK

Moscow State University is one of the best universities in the world!!!
The point is that this ranking's organizators have incorrect criteria of comparisons. That's why we cant top this list.

Eugene, Moscow, Russia

Moscow State University is one of the best universities of the world!!!
The point is that this ranking's organizators have incorrect criteria of comparisons. That's why we cant top this list.

Eugene, Moscow, Russia

This ranking sounds more like brand power of the universities. After seeing McGill ranked much much better than University of Waterloo. But the brand power does not give you much information.

Francis, Mississauga, Canada

bill, your comment is funny!

ken, HK,

It would have been useful to know on what basis the list is compiled. It can't be grades awarded, because thats easy to fix. Is it average salary of graduates - moderated to account for national differences? Or is it based on numbers of candidates for places against numbers of places? Do tell !!

DLL, Brussels,

Looks like nonsense to me.How can Southampton, Sheffield and others be ahead of Cardiff.Last year Cardiff was 99th , love to know how the measure this.

Richard Blake, Gimhae, Korea

I think the writer does not know well enough about universities.
No body think Boston University is better than Tufts University,
New York University than Georgetown...

Bong , Seoul , Korea

I do not believe that MOSCOW STATE University Russia and University of SAO PAULO Brazil have taken last places. It is wrong. Falsification. I was at both universities, and, I wish to tell that any British did not stand and near to Moscow. It is all the policy. It should be a shame to you for such!

Robert, London, GB

Good old University of Reading! An impressive ranking of 194 for this fine educational establishment!

Gulliver, London, UK

Hmmm... I wonder how many of the executives managing the 'banks' and other financial companies are alumini of the top 100.

Asanam, London, UK

City University of Hong Kong! Keep going! Work hard!

Ken, hong kong,

A good school is a school that teaches you what you want to know. You can get a great education visiting a library, traveling or working. The number of smart people who didn't go to Harvard would fill a rather large room.

John, San Francisco, USA

Disclose those assessors' education background, that will definitely indicate some conflicts of interests!!! They tend to put their own unversity top of the league!!!

Donald, Morrisville, USA

So many American Unis are on the list. One of my workers is from one of these uni. I would have sacked him a long time ago if not because he has some political connection. I think the ranking has to do with monies.... and funding....

TY Tan, PCH, Malaysia

Awesome lisk. Can we now do top 200 High Schools so that we can plan our kids future better...

Harry, London, UK

If Reading and Bristol are in the list...so should Loughborough which was ranked 11 or 12 in the UK and has constantly been in the top 15 in the UK for the past decade.

What a waste of time this is...

Denis, Loughborough, UK

This list is a misleading barmoeter of undergraduate academic quality since it limits itself to universities and omits the small, elite American Liberal Arts colleges. I'm glad my alma mater (Rutgers) made the list but Rutgers isn't as rigorous as colleges such as Swarthmore, Amherst, Williams, etc.

Martin, Montclair NJ, USA

As a current Manchester student I am proud to see us sitting in 29th! I'd imagine this is owing to research rather than other indicators.

Dave, Manchester, UK

How come Oxford and Cambridge are considered as single Universities whereas London University has multiple entries for its individual colleges? Perhaps no single college in Oxford or Cambridge is worthy of a top 10 spot?

Colin, Oslo, Norway

Sydney's always been up there Bill - the oldest university in Australia based on British standards

Niall Orr, Sydney, Australia

"I cant believe that none of the university in India from India made it to the list. ^_~

Ann, BKK, Thailand"

Numbers 154 and 174 would be Indian Universities...

Asad, Karachi, Pakistan

Rankings are definitely good indicators, although obviously only part of the story. For example, Westminster Uni is very low in the overall UK rankings, however the Slavonic department is tiny, which effectively gives us a ratio of about 4 to 5 students to every lecturer, better than most top unis!

Tim, London,

Visiting US higher educational establishments (not just Ivy League) reveals massive differences in resources - no wonder we are sliding down the tables. My American wife went to a great school and grateful alumni provided much of her fees because they had such a great college experience.

Andrew, Chesham, UK

Preferred ways of ranking universities are to count the number of research papers published, the total number of pages published or the number of times that articles have been cited as references from other articles and factor in the size of the university and funding.

Michael, Edinburgh,

This is such complete nonsense. My daughter, now at U of Toronto (#20) doing her doctorate, started off at Carleton U (not ranked). I remember asking her about these ratings and she sensibly repied that it depended on your field - Carleton was good for history, And it is.

David Polk, Ottawa, Canada

Janine,
I am also feel great of 29. But Manchester University's ranking probably benefited greatly by merging with UMIST.

alumnus, Didsbury,

Is this a joke? How many of the so-called top universities are English-speaking? The first german university comes in at.....57 (heidelberg)! Biased towards the English speaking world? Just a bit......
Bob Brain

Bob Brain, Oxford,

Who would have thought that Manchester outperforms Berkeley? This is just uterly useless rubbish.

Fred Caprivi, Manchester,

How can LSE possibly be 66th? I thought its a very top uni in the UK. What does this list of top 200 base on?

Debbie, Keswick,

times survey st andrew=5th why so low in this survey behind lesser universities?

jimbo, st andrews,

How can the University of Auckland be ranked higher than LSE?

T, London,

Yaayyy.. we're the... the... farghhhh... we're not even listed!!

Chandran, Georgetown, Malaysia

Yay... my university's at 29, quite respectable I feel. Although I would like to know what exactly they are basing this league table on.

Janine, Manchester, England

arhh really wanna get into university of california, berkeley!

Fiona, Hong Kong ,

What exactly is this Top 200 for? Endowments, numbers of overseas students, how many graduate with a degree, how many get a First or equiv? It's not made clear unless I have overlooked it.

Jax Atkins, Brighton, UK

What!!!
98 University of CALIFORNIA, Santa Barbara, United States, is
ahead of USC at 102. UC Santa Barbara doesn't even have a
football team. Go Bruins!!

john, placentia, California Republic

I cant believe that none of the university in India from India made it to the list. ^_~

Ann, BKK, Thailand

Who compiledd this list? Cannot believe s that such a mediocre institution as the Univ of Sydney evern got near it.Was it based on beer drinking contests?

Bill, Sydney,