Dominating the world university reputation rankings, the United States currently holds 8 of the top 10 positions.
Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Stanford University are the top 3 respectively.
Harvard remains the top dog, according to the Times Higher Education (THE) rankings from 2015.
MIT has the made the jump from fourth to second, pushing out the U.K.’s Cambridge University, while Stanford University rose from fifth to third, usurping Oxford University.
The rankings for both 2016 and 2015, respectively, are as follows:
| 2016 | 2015 | |
1. | Harvard University | Harvard University |
| 2. | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | University of Cambridge - United Kingdom |
| 3. | Stanford University | University of Oxford - United Kingdom |
| 4. | University of Cambridge - United Kingdom | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| 5. | University of Oxford - United Kingdom | Stanford University |
| 6. | University of California, Berkeley | University of California, Berkeley |
| 7. | Princeton University | Princeton University |
| 8. | Yale University | Yale University |
| 9. | Columbia University | California Institute of Technology |
| 10. | California Institute of Technology | Columbia University |
The 2016 rankings are based on a survey carried out between January 2016 and March 2016, which received a total of 10,323 responses from 133 countries. Scholars, representing each respective school, are asked to name the top 15 universities they believe are the best in each category based on their own experiences, according to the THE website.
The questionnaire targets solely experienced, published scholars, willing to offer their views on excellence in research and teaching at institutions with which they are familiar; questioned at the level of their specific subject discipline.
