Edinburgh University fell from 45th to 49th in the Times Higher Education’s 2012 World Reputation Rankings along with other UK institutions. The top spot was taken by US university Harvard, with Cambridge the highest-placed UK university, in third position. Overall, the UK has ten universities in the top 100 – second only to the US, which has 44 institutions in the annual list – ranked by reputation based on the world’s largest survey of academic opinion. But there were two fewer entries this year compared with last year for the UK as a whole, with Imperial College, University College London, Edinburgh and Bristol all falling down the list. The University of Sheffield and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine dropped out of the top 100 altogether. Compilers of the list said the rankings provided “clear evidence” of an elite group of US and UK global “super-brands”, headed by Harvard University. However, the compilers warned that the UK’s position at the forefront of higher education was under threat from emerging universities in Asia. Phil Baty, editor of Times Higher Education Rankings, said: “Make no mistake, this data should be uncomfortable news for the UK. Our global reputation as the home of outstanding universities has been hit. “Meanwhile, all the leading Asian universities, most notably in China, are on the up. “The messages we are sending to the world about our commitment to funding our universities, fuelled by the images of students protesting in Westminster, on top of our clampdown on overseas students, are not playing well globally. “There is a clear risk that our universities, other than the elite ‘super-brands’ of Oxford and Cambridge, will be relegated from the premier league of institutions in the eyes of the world, with tangible and sustained damage. Perception is reality and it seems that we are perceived as a fading power.” Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, said: “The UK continues to punch above its weight on the global stage, but while other countries are investing in their universities, our sector is beset by funding uncertainties caused by ill-thought-through government policy.” A spokeswoman for Edinburgh University declined to comment on the list. The top 100 Universities Key: 2012 reputation rank University Country 2011 reputation rank 1 Harvard University United States 1 2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States 2 3 University of Cambridge United Kingdom 3 4 Stanford University United States 5 5 University of California, Berkeley United States 4 6 University of Oxford United Kingdom 6 7 Princeton University United States 7 8 University of Tokyo Japan 8 9 University of California, Los Angeles United States 12 10 Yale University United States 9 11 California Institute of Technology United States 10 12 University of Michigan United States 13 13 Imperial College London United Kingdom 11 14 University of Chicago United States 15 15 Columbia University United States 23 16 Cornell University United States 16 16 University of Toronto Canada 17 18 Johns Hopkins University United States 14 19 University of Pennsylvania United States 22 20 Kyoto University Japan 18 21 University College London United Kingdom 19 22 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich Switzerland 24 23 University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign United States 21 23 National University of Singapore Singapore 27 25 University of British Columbia Canada 31 25 McGill University Canada 29 27 University of Wisconsin-Madison United States 25 28 University of Washington United States 26 29 London School of Economics and Political Science United Kingdom 37 30 Tsinghua University China 35 31 University of California, San Francisco United States 34 32 University of Texas at Austin United States 31 33 Duke University United States 36 34 New York University United States 51-60 35 Northwestern University United States 40 36 University of California, San Diego United States 30 37 Carnegie Mellon University United States 28 38 Peking University China 43 39 The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong 42 39 University of Massachusetts United States 19 41 Georgia Institute of Technology United States 39 42 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Germany 48 43 University of Melbourne Australia 45 44 Australian National University Australia 51-60 44 University of California, Davis United States 38 46 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States 41 47 University of Minnesota United States 43 47 Purdue University United States 47 49 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom 45 50 The University of Sydney Australia 51-60 51-60 Delft University of Technology Netherlands 49 51-60 Karolinska Institute Sweden 51-60 51-60 University of Manchester United Kingdom 61-70 51-60 The Ohio State University United States 51-60 51-60 Osaka University Japan 50 51-60 Pennsylvania State University United States 61-70 51-60 University of California, Santa Barbara United States 51-60 51-60 Seoul National University Korea, Republic of 51-60 51-60 Tohoku University Japan 51-60 51-60 Tokyo Institute of Technology Japan 51-60 61-70 École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland 71-80 61-70 Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel #N/A 61-70 The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong 91-100 61-70 Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Germany 71-80 61-70 King’s College London United Kingdom 61-70 61-70 Technische Universität München Germany 61-70 61-70 University of Pittsburgh United States 51-60 61-70 University of São Paulo Brazil #N/A 61-70 University of Southern California United States 71-80 61-70 National Taiwan University Taiwan 81-90 71-80 University of Amsterdam Netherlands 81-90 71-80 Universität Heidelberg Germany 81-90 71-80 Michigan State University United States 71-80 71-80 Université Paris-Sorbonne France #N/A 71-80 The University of Queensland Australia Australia 81-90 71-80 Texas A&M University United States 81-90 71-80 Uppsala University Sweden 61-70 71-80 Utrecht University Netherlands 71-80 71-80 Washington University in St Louis United States 71-80 71-80 University of Zürich Switzerland 61-70 81-90 Brown University United States #N/A 81-90 The Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong #N/A 81-90 University of Florida United States 61-70 81-90 Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Belgium 81-90 81-90 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Korea, Republic of 91-100 81-90 University of Leeds United Kingdom 81-90 81-90 Leiden University Netherlands 81-90 81-90 Lund University Sweden 71-80 81-90 Nanyang Technological University Singapore 91-100 81-90 Tel Aviv University Israel #N/A 91-100 University of Arizona United States 71-80 91-100 Boston University United States 61-70 91-100 University of Bristol United Kingdom 81-90 91-100 École Polytechnique France 61-70 91-100 Indiana University United States 81-90 91-100 Middle East Technical University Turkey #N/A 91-100 Université Paris-Sud France #N/A 91-100 Université Pierre et Marie Curie France #N/A 91-100 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey United States 71-80 91-100 Wageningen University and Research Center Netherlands #N/