Which is the world’s best university?

California Institute of Technology has been crowned the world’s top university by Times Higher Education in its rankings for 2015-2016.

The index assesses 800 universities across 13 performance indicators – teaching, research and international outlook – to produce an overall score out of 100.

The University of Oxford takes second place, a whole point below Cal Tech, while completing the top three is Stanford University, with a score of 93.9.

American institutions dominate the top spots, with only three non-US universities included. This trend is repeated across the list, with 63 of the top 200 universities from the United States.

While the rankings use the same 13 performance indicators as last year, the methodology has been adjusted for 2015/16 to change how citations are incorporated. There are also 400 extra institutions included, and the Academic Reputation Survey has a wider geographical distribution.

Taken together, these changes have caused significant shifts in the positions of various institutions since last year. Times Higher Education says direct comparisons are impossible because they can’t be attributed to performance alone.

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Author: Joe Myers is a Digital Content Producer at Formative Content.

Image: A graduate wears a houndstooth ribbon on her graduation cap. REUTERS/Marvin Gentry