Some of the top institutions in Europe have dropped down the annual Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2013. The UK and US continue to dominate while leaders in France, Germany, Netherlands, Russia, Belgium, Ireland and Austria have seen their stars fade. The results are likely to spur on advocates of a scheme to produce a measurement of university excellence that better reflects the strengths of universities outside the US and UK.
Taking the top spot in the THE rankings for the third year in a row is the California Institute of Technology. Oxford has also maintained its position in joint second place but in a tussle between the East and West coasts of the US, Harvard has pushed Stanford into fourth place, having regained its position next to Oxford at number two.