University of Cambridge ranks fifth in The Times World University Rankings

O*ford ranked first for the sixth year in a row


The Times Higher Education World University Rankings (published September 2nd) has ranked Cambridge as the number five university in the world for 2022.

Cambridge and Oxford were the only two UK universities to rank in the US-dominated top ten.

Cambridge shares spot #5 with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is immediately followed by Princeton University, University of California (Berkeley), and Yale University in spots #7, #8, and #9 respectively.

Oxford secured the top spot for the sixth year in a row, followed by California Institute of Technology and Harvard university at joint #2, and Stanford University at #4.Other UK universities in the top 20 are Imperial College London (#12) and UCL (#18).

The criteria for the ranking included thirteen performance indicators grouped into five areas– teaching, research, citations, international outlook, and industry income. It relied heavily on peer reviews and surveys.

The University of Cambridge scored an overall 94.6. The breakdowns of its overall score reveal that it has the second highest quality research, just behind Oxford at 99.5 and the sixth best teaching at 90.9.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings are the largest and most diverse ranking system of universities across the world, comparing 1662 institutions from 99 countries in this year’s report.

While the US is still the most-represented country in the rankings with 183 institutions, its share of the elite top 200 institutions (57) has fallen. Overall, the rankings are shifting, with mainland China overtaking Canada in the number of elite institutions.

452 additional universities were listed with “reporter” status, having provided data but failed to meet the eligibility criteria for ranking.

Feature Image Credit: Erin Visaya-Neville