Cambridge Uni Ranking Drop

26 August 2010, 11:35 | Updated: 26 August 2010, 11:43

The University of Cambridge has dropped a place to fifth in worldwide academic rankings.

The prestigious establishment is now fifth in the Academic Ranking of World universities, just behind the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA.

Cambridge remains the highest-ranked British institution in the league table though, with nearest rival Oxford in tenth.

Harvard remains at the top of the pile - a position it has held on to since rankings began in 2003.

The ARWU system gives universities weighting according to the number of Nobel prizes and academic medals awarded to alumni.

It also takes into account the number of papers published by top journals as well as citations of papers published by its faculty members.

British Universities in the top 100 Academic Ranking of World Universities

1. The University of Cambridge (5th)
2. The University of Oxford (10th)
3. University College London (21st)
4. Imperial College London (26th)
5. The University of Manchester (44th)
6. The University of Edinburgh (54th)
7. King's College London (63rd)
8. The University of Bristol (66th)
9.  The University of Nottingham (84th)
10. The University of Sheffield (88th)
11. The University of Birmingham (99th)