The Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings employ the world's largest invitation-only academic opinion survey to provide the definitive list of the top 100 most powerful global university brands. A spin-off of the annual World University Rankings, the reputation league table is based on nothing more than subjective judgement - but it is the considered expert judgement of senior, published academics - the people best placed to know the most about excellence in our universities.
Harvard university has once again topped the Times Higher Education's world reputation ranking of universities. The 2013 rankings, show the US dominating the list with more than 40 institutions in the top 100.
Following Harvard are Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Cambridge University, taking second and third place respectively. Oxford university has climbed two places since the 2012 rankings, to take fourth place and Stanford university has dropped down to sixth. The University of Tokyo at 9th place, is the highest ranking university outside of the UK or US. Six countries (compared with only four last year) have one representative in the top 100: Brazil, Taiwan, Belgium, Israel, Russia and Turkey.
The rankings also highlight a big improvement for Australia which now has six universities represented in the top 100 - the third highest representation in the list behind the US and the UK. Australia has two new entries: the university of New South Wales and Monash University.
With nine universities in the top 100, the UK has the second highest number of representatives after the US. University College London (UCL) has moved up one place to 20th and the London School of Economics (LSE) has jumped up to 25th in the latest rankings. Manchester university has entered the top 50 for the first time and Edinburgh university, the only Scottish institution in the list, has moved up three places to 46th place. It's not such good news for Leeds university though, the university has dropped out of the top 100 since the 2012 rankings placed them within the 81-90 band.
Overall, the UK's representation in the top 100 has declined since 2011.
