Following a survey of over 33,000 global academics and 16,000 graduate employers, Cambridge University has been ranked number one in the world for the second consecutive year ahead of Harvard, MIT and Yale. According to the QS World University Rankings, Oxford University has moved up to fifth place while UCL drops from four to seven.

The sector may have faced a difficult year of funding cuts and controversy over tuition fees, but this year’s rankings contain some much-needed good news for UK universities. Cambridge retains the number one spot it prised from Harvard in 2010, while Oxford (5), Imperial (6) and UCL (7) all make the top ten, though the latter dropped three places.

Edinburgh (20), King’s (27), Manchester (29), Bristol (30) and Warwick (50) made the top 50 overall, with 37 UK universities in the top 300, second only to the US. Despite Cambridge’s table-topping performance, US institutions continue to dominate, taking 20 of the top 50 places and accounting for 70 of the top 300.

“This year’s QS rankings show that the worst effects of the funding cuts have yet to be felt by UK universities”, says Ben Sowter, head of research at QS. “However, pre-emptive redundancies and increased student intake have led to worse student/faculty ratios relative to their international peers. Of the 37 UK universities in the top 300, 34 fared worse in this measure than in 2010.”

For the first time, the 2011 rankings have been published alongside comparative fee data, showing average course costs at the world’s top 300 universities. While UK universities still represent a cheaper option compared to most of their US peers, the rankings uncover international universities that offer arguably better value relative to their ranking position.

Universities in the Netherlands in particular offer a value-for-money alternative for UK students. Leading universities such as University of Amsterdam (63), Utrecht (80), Leiden (88), Maastricht (109) and University of Groningen (115) offer English-language programs at less than £2,000 per year, while all academically outperforming Russell Group institutions such as Liverpool, Newcastle and Cardiff, as well as many other prospective £9,000 institutions.

“With so many well-qualified UK candidates missing out on university places, this year’s QS rankings may encourage many to consider applying to universities abroad”, says John O’Leary, editor of the Times Good University Guide. “While studying abroad has traditionally been seen as the preserve of a wealthy minority, fee increases alongside greater provision of English-language degrees in Europe mean that it could now actually be a money-saving alternative – this is an entirely new situation.”

UK universities  in the top 100 of the 2011/2012 QS World University Rankings®

2011	2010	Institution name
RANK	RANK
1	1	University of Cambridge
5	6	University of Oxford
6	7	Imperial College London
7	4	UCL (University College London)
20	22	University of Edinburgh
27	21	King's College London (KCL)
29	30	The University of Manchester
30	27	University of Bristol
50	53	The University of Warwick
59	77	University of Glasgow
64	80	London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
67	59	University of Birmingham
72	69	The University of Sheffield
74	73	The University of Nottingham
75	81	University of Southampton
93	85	University of Leeds
95	92	Durham University
96	88	University of York
97	95	University of St Andrews

© QS Quacquarelli Symonds 2004-2011 www.topuniversities.com .All rights reserved. Extracted from QS World University Rankings® 2011 Disclaimer

Top 50 universities in the 2011/2012 QS World University Rankings®

Rank	Institution	Country
1	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
2	Harvard University	United States
3	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	United States
4	Yale University	United States
5	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
6	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
7	UCL (University College London)	United Kingdom
8	University of Chicago	United States
9	University of Pennsylvania	United States
10	Columbia University	United States
11	Stanford University	United States
12	California Institute of Technology (Caltech)	United States
13	Princeton University	United States
14	University of Michigan	United States
15	Cornell University	United States
16	Johns Hopkins University	United States
17	McGill University	Canada
18	ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)	Switzerland
19	Duke University	United States
20	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
21	University of California, Berkeley (UCB)	United States
22	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
23	University of Toronto	Canada
24	Northwestern University	United States
25	The University of Tokyo	Japan
26	Australian National University	Australia
27	King?s College London (University of London)	United Kingdom
28	National University of Singapore (NUS)	Singapore
29	The University of Manchester	United Kingdom
30	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
31	The University of Melbourne	Australia
32	Kyoto University	Japan
33	École Normale Supérieure, Paris	France
34	University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)	United States
35	Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	Switzerland
36	École Polytechnique	France
37	The Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
38	The University of Sydney	Australia
39	Brown University	United States
40	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong
41	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
42	Seoul National University	Korea, South
43	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
44	New York University (NYU)	United States
45	Osaka University	Japan
46	Peking University	China
47	Tsinghua University	China
48	The University of Queensland	Australia
49	The University of New South Wales	Australia
50	The University of Warwick	United Kingdom

© QS Quacquarelli Symonds 2004-2011 www.topuniversities.com .All rights reserved. Extracted from QS World University Rankings® 2011 Disclaimer