The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) was named the world's best university for the fifth consecutive year. British magazine Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2015-16, has placed Caltech at the top of world's top 800 universities from some 70 countries.
"A total of 147 U.S. universities feature in the top 800 including Caltech which claims pole position for the fifth consecutive year," THE said in a statement.
"The ranking emphasizes his school's strengths in venturing into unexplored realms, defining new fields in science and engineering, and pushing interdisciplinary boundaries in the service of discovery," Caltech President Thomas F. Rosenbaum said in a statement, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The THE rankings, released Oct.1, placed six American institutions in the top 10 and 34 in the top 100, reported the BBC. The U.S. now has six universities in top 10, compared with seven last year, and 63 in the top 200, compared with 74 last year.
"This year's expanded list is testament to just how competitive global higher education has become - our top 800 universities come from 70 different countries, and the traditional dominance of the US is eroding," said Phil Baty, THE rankings editor, according to The Hindu.
Baty noted that cuts in funding by several states in the United States is hurting institutions.
"While 47 states in the U.S. have implemented higher education funding cuts since the recession in 2008, including California, which cut its university system's budget by $900 million, or 27 percent, these standout performers in Europe and Asia are continuing to invest heavily in higher education. The U.S. will have to raise its game to ensure its dominance does not erode," he said, according to USA Today.
Top 10 Higher Education Institutions as per THE World University Rankings 2015-16;
1. California Institute of Technology , USA
2. University of Oxford ,UK
3. Stanford University, USA
4. Cambridge University , UK
5. MIT , USA
6. Harvard University , USA
7. Princeton University , USA
8. Imperial College of London , UK
9. Switzerland Federation Institute of Technology , Switzerland
10. University of Chicago , USA
