Cambridge University slips a place in world rankings

But it remains the top UK institution.

Cambridge University has fallen to fifth in the QS World University Rankings 2018, but stil beat Oxford to the top spot in the British rankings.

California Institute of Technology moved about Cambridge, securing the top four positions for the US.

Cambridge University is ranked best in the world for employer reputation, while Oxford out-performs Cambridge in its ratio of international students and international faculty.

Editor of TopUniversities.com Craig OCallaghan said: “The UK is dealing with its own image crisis, as Brexit and a surge in anti-immigration sentiment threatens to impact the ability of British universities to attract top international students. As Brexit negotiations are yet to begin (and there’s also the small matter of a general election to get through first), it may be too early for Brexit to have had a severely damaging impact on British universities, but the warning signs are there.

“No wonder prominent British universities are stepping up plans for campuses based abroad.”

Nearly 1,000 universities from 84 countries around the world are included in the QS World University Rankings 2018.

The Top Ten:

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

2. Stanford University

3. Harvard University

4. California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

5. University of Cambridge

6. University of Oxford

7. UCL (University College London)

8. Imperial College London

9. University of Chicago

10. ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)