Cambridge Climbs to Second in World University Rankings

Cambridge has moved from third to second in a world ranking of universities based on research prowess.

Harvard remains the leader of the top 500 universities, a list compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University which is now widely quoted as a measure in the academic world.

Manchester has jumped from 78th to 53rd place in the world since its merger with the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (Umist).

American institutions, both public and private, dominate the list but this year Stanford has ceded second place to Cambridge. Oxford has dropped from eighth to 10th in the table which its compilers admit favours science. The number of Nobel prize winners among alumni and on the staff count towards 30% of the ranking and Cambridge alumni almost equals Harvard's in this respect.

A dispute over Nobel prize-winning alumni meant that Humboldt University and the Free University of Berlin have not been ranked in 2005, the Shanghai team notes on its website

"This is because both universities claimed to be the successor of Berlin University before world war two, and they could not agree on how to divide the Nobel prizes won by the old Berlin University."

UK university continue to perform well against the European competition - Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial and University College London take the top four places in Europe, with Edinburgh in ninth position. Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield, King's College London and Nottingham are all in the top 30 universities in Europe.

Academic staff are also ranked on their citations in papers by other academics in their subjects and for the first time, an arts and humanities citation index has been introduced but staff also receive points for publications in the scientific journals Nature and Science. The London School of Economics ranks lower than 200 on the list despite its reputation in social sciences.

Shanghai Jiao Tong's top 50 universities (last year's ranking in brackets):

1 (1) Harvard University USA

2 (3) University Cambridge UK

3 (2) Stanford University USA

4 (4) University California - Berkeley USA

5 (5) Massachusetts Inst Tech (MIT) USA

6 (6) California Inst Tech USA

7 (9) Columbia University USA

8 (7) Princeton University USA

9 (10) University Chicago USA

10 (8) University of Oxford UK

11 (11) Yale University USA

12 (12) Cornell University USA

13 (13) University California - San Diego USA

14 (16) University California - Los Angeles USA

15 (15) University Pennsylvania USA

16 (18) University Wisconsin - Madison USA

17 (20) University Washington - Seattle USA

18 (17) University California - San Francisco USA

19 (22) Johns Hopkins University USA

20 (14) Tokyo University Asia/Pac

21 (19) University Michigan - Ann Arbor USA

22 (21) Kyoto University Asia/Pac

23 (23) Imperial Coll London UK

24 (24) University Toronto USA

25 (25) University Illinois - Urbana Champaign USA

26 (25) University Coll London UK

27 (27) Swiss Fed Inst Tech - Zurich Switzerland

28 (28) Washington University - St. Louis USA

29 (32) New York University USA

30 (29) Rockefeller University USA

31 (30) Northwestern University USA

32 (31) Duke University USA

32 (33) University Minnesota - Twin Cities USA

34 (35) University California - Santa Barbara USA

35 (34) University Colorado - Boulder USA

36 (40) University Texas - Austin USA

37 (36) University British Columbia Canada

38 (36) University Texas Southwestern Med Center USA

39 (43) Pennsylvania State University - University Park USA

39 (38) Vanderbilt University USA

41 (42) University California - Davis USA

41 (39) University Utrecht Netherlands

43 (44) Rutgers State University - New Brunswick USA

43 (48) University Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh USA

45 (46) Karolinska Inst Stockholm Sweden

46 (41) University Paris 06 Europe

47 (55) University California - Irvine USA

47 (47) University Edinburgh Europe

47 (57) University Maryland - Coll Park USA