MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Harvard ranked as the university with the world highest reputation

In the top ten figure, 6 from the US, 3 from UK (including Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial college of London) and the University of Tokyo

According to Times Higher Education (THE) ever World Reputation Rankings, Harvard, MIT and the University of Cambridge are the most globally well-regarded universities.

Also in the top ten are the University of Oxford and the University of Tokyo -- the remaining five are American institutions.

To compile these rankings, Ipsos Media CT conducted an Academic Reputation Survey of 13,388 academics in 131 countries for THE, using 2010 data from Thomson Reuters. Responses to this survey are regularly considered in THE's world rankings, but the reputation rankings mark the first time these measures are used exclusively.

On average, the scholars questioned had spent at least 16 years working at a university and published at least 50 research papers. They were instructed to select the universities they believe to be the best in teaching and research, according to their own expertise. Rankings were then determined according to an overall reputation score, which was compiled according to which school got the most votes for “best” and weighed research over teaching at a rate of 2 to 1.

Below, see the 15 universities with the best reputations in the world: Harvard University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; University of Cambridge; University of California, Berkeley; University of Stanford; University of Oxford; Princeton University; University of Tokyo; Yale University; California Institute of Technology; Imperial College of London; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Michigan, John Hopkins University, University of Chicago.

Among the top 100 with the best reputation US leads with 46 universities; UK, 9; Japan, 6; Canada, 4; Australia, Germany and Netherlands with 4 each; Switzerland, Sweden and Singapore with 3 each; Hong Kong, China, Korea, France with 2 each; India, Russia, Austria, Taiwan, Finland and Belgium with one university each.

No Latin American universities figure in the top 100 list.