The World's BEST Universities (PHOTOS)

Though American academic institutions dominate the top spots in a new ranking of the world's best universities, it is England's University of Cambridge that is No. 1 -- taking a place previously held by Harvard.

The rankings were compiled by careers advice company QS.

See the 15 highest-ranked schools below, and check out the list of the top 200 here.

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University of Cambridge

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Comments

[Revolition]

03:19 AM on 10/22/2010

UCLA always does really well in world university rankings. What I love about UCLA is the fact that as a university, it is always striving for the top. UCLA's meteoric rise has been unmatched by any other university in the last 90 years.

[AncientTerp]

08:20 PM on 09/21/2010

I've attended and worked at a number of these institutions and can vouch for their high rankings. I'd rather see them arranged in groups of five, however, because a numerical order of precedence is nonsense and cannot be measured accurately because the criteria are both vague and numerous.

[plazdiquehardt]

11:02 PM on 09/17/2010

Cambridge should not be #1. Oxford should be way higher than #6. And UPenn should be way higher than #12. No way. I don't (want to?) believe it.

[sheoples]

07:33 PM on 09/16/2010

i realized at some point.........there are many people who are smart........who don't go to top tier schools.

people must realize it's not just brains..........it's the ability to negotiate the poltiics of an institution and the competition that does people in.

imho ivy education doesn't teach you anything different than other universities....it's the ability to compete and get your way in a dog eat dog world of competative academia that sets these ivies apart.

in a word they are sharks.

[sheoples]

07:28 PM on 09/16/2010

does anyone else get the sense that berkeley has become more conservative school over the years???

[matthewdsmith]

02:20 PM on 09/21/2010

I attend Cal, and yes. I do think that.

[Hare]

09:56 PM on 09/15/2010

Just to see the kids schools in the single digits eases the pain of untold sacrifices made and I do feel proud to say they were excellent students. They are doing well and they are wonderful human beings which is a million times more important in my eyes.

[sheoples]

07:06 PM on 09/16/2010

lucky your kids.......i was only able to go to a no name alphabet soup school in middle of no where.

[reasonshouldrule]

09:06 PM on 09/13/2010

University of Michigan: GO BLUE :-)

[fem56]

01:14 PM on 09/13/2010

Looks like Caltech students have been busy.

[bkrider9]

08:10 AM on 09/10/2010

Is Hogwarts a college or a university?

[WaterCloset]

06:24 PM on 09/15/2010

It looks a lot like University of Chicago... So I say university

[sheoples]

07:30 PM on 09/16/2010

college..........b/c they dont' do any research.........just teach.

[NoMercy]

04:23 AM on 09/10/2010

According to the BBC, the reason the QS gave for the preponderance of UK and US universities in the highest places is:

"The rankings are by QS academic advisory board, which said UK and US universities had an advantage because English is the language of academia."

[Benedictus70]

11:19 AM on 09/11/2010

I mean, that's sort of true for at least the sciences. Have you ever been to an international conference, worked with laboratories overseas, or read academic journals? Everyone speaks English.

[sheoples]

07:07 PM on 09/16/2010

yet another reason for me to stay ignorant and not learn another language. :-)

[Milan Moravec]

08:59 PM on 09/09/2010

UC Berkeley: what's swept under the carpet. A legacy of waste in UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Office: easily grasped by the public, lost on University of California’s President Yudof.
The UC Berkley budget gap has grown to $150 million, & still the Chancellor is spending money that isn't there on $3,000,000 consultants. His reasons range from the need for impartiality to requiring the consultants "thinking, expertise, & new knowledge".
Does this mean that the faculty & management of UC Berkeley – flagship campus of the greatest public system of higher education in the world - lack the knowledge, integrity, impartiality, innovation, skills to come up with solutions? Have they been fudging their research for years?
The consultants will glean their recommendations from faculty interviews & the senior management that hired them; yet $ 150 million of inefficiencies and solutions could be found internally if the Chancellor & Provost Breslauer were doing the work of their jobs (This simple point is lost on UC’s leadership).
The victims of this folly are Faculty and Students. $ 3 million consultant fees would be far better spent on students & faculty.
There can be only one conclusion as to why inefficiencies & solutions have not been forthcoming from faculty & staff: Chancellor Birgeneau has lost credibility & the trust of the faculty & Academic Senate leadership (C. Kutz, F. Doyle). Even if the faculty agrees with the consultants' recommendations - disagreeing might put their jobs in jeopardy - the underlying problem of lost credibility &

[wethree]

08:04 PM on 09/09/2010

England and the U.S. only? Absurd. If anything, these schools (geographically) are turning out those least prepared to function in the World at large and the least prepared to deal with both economic and technology innovation. HuffPo is getting myopic in the College listings and daily polls. Give it a rest....'k?

[NoMercy]

04:25 AM on 09/10/2010

The full listing is available at their website. The reason for the preponderance of US and UK universities is because of QS's methodology, including this one - ""The rankings are by QS academic advisory board, which said UK and US universities had an advantage because English is the language of academia."

[wendelswerk]

07:00 PM on 09/09/2010

UCLA not in the top 10 ahhh shucks. You mean I wasted the best years of my life?

[sheoples]

07:26 PM on 09/16/2010

i don't like ucla simply b/c i hate the quarter system....

[SouthernBelle4]

03:23 PM on 09/09/2010

No UC Berkeley? It's consistently ranked one of the top ten in the world.

[jackstpaul]

08:06 PM on 09/10/2010

Um, no. Not being ranked here in top 10 is counter-evidence to your claim. It's not even ranked in the top 10 in the US that often anymore, although I think it's a great school--top 15 of national universities. Almost went there for grad school. One of those schools that ranks even higher when it comes to grad department rankings. It was tied with Harvard for #1 for my grad field.

[sheoples]

07:27 PM on 09/16/2010

what field is that?

[TeacupKitten]

02:48 PM on 09/09/2010

"World's Best" indeed! Like the Baseball WORLD CUP (even though I can count the number of countries that play the game in one hand).