Three UK universities are ranked among the top 10 in the world, with Oxford leading the way, according to a new league table.
The Times Higher Education's latest world university rankings reveal that Britain still has the second-best education system worldwide, although the authors raised concerns that funding cuts and the proposed tripling of tuition fees could damage the UK's international standing.
Oxford was rated the UK's best university, coming fourth in the new table, putting it above Cambridge which was in sixth place. This is partly due to changes in the way institutions are ranked.
Last year the two prestigious institutions were joint sixth.
Imperial College London was the third UK university to make this year's top 10.
Overall, seven UK universities were ranked in the top 50, and 12 in the top 100. This is down slightly on last year when 14 were in the top 100.
The US dominates the table again this year, with 75 institutions in the top 200. The California Institute of Technology topped the table, followed by Harvard University and Stanford University in joint second place.
Only the US and the UK had universities in the top 10.
Ann Mroz, editor of The Times Higher Education, magazine said: "The UK is blessed with some truly brilliant universities, more brilliant than the Government understands judging by its hastily concocted higher education reforms, with all the uncertainty they entail.
"While we may be second to the US in terms of the overall number of world-class institutions, given the disparity in funding levels, our performance is nothing short of staggering. Put simply: we spend much less on our universities than many of our competitors, less than the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average and yet outperform almost all of them."