Yorkshire
universities
rate higher
in global
rankings

YORK and Leeds universities are climbing up world rankings while other institutions in Edinburgh, Manchester, Bristol and Newcastle are at risk of losing their reputations as being among the best in the world to study for a degree, research suggests.

The “golden triangle” of Oxford, Cambridge and London is fast becoming Britain’s last bastion of world-class education and research, according to new international rankings.

The latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2013/14 show that overall, the UK is holding its much-envied position, with 31 institutions in the top 200, more than any other country except the United States.

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But Sheffield and other universities outside London and Oxbridge have dropped down the table.

York and Leeds were among the UK institutions that put in improved showings. Leeds last year was 142 and climbed to 139 while York went up three place from 103rd to 100.

The rankings rate universities worldwide on 13 measures including teaching, research and their international outlook, which includes the number of overseas students and staff they have.

The UK has three universities in the top 10, with Oxford taking second place alongside Harvard in the US.

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Cambridge University was seventh, and Imperial College London took tenth place.

There were seven UK universities in the top 50, and 11 in the top 100, up one from 10 last year.

London had four institutions in the top 40, compared with three last year, more than any other city in the world.

But a number of leading UK institutions fared less well, the rankings show.

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Since the 2011/12 tables, Manchester has fallen from 48th to 58th, Bristol has gone from 66th to 79th, Sheffield from 101st to 112th, Aberdeen from 151st to 188th, Reading from 164th to 194th and Newcastle from 146th to 198th.

Since last year, Nottingham has gone from 120th to 157th, Southampton from 130th to 146th and Warwick from 124th to 141st.

Top of this year’s charts was the California Institute of Technology, which was in first place for the third year running.

The rest of the top 10 was made up of Oxford and Harvard in joint second place, Stanford University in fourth, Massachussetts Institute of Technology, (5), Princeton (6), Cambridge (7), University of California, Berkeley (8), University of Chicago (9), Imperial College London (10).