UCL overtakes Imperial in world university rankings

University College London has overtaken its rival Imperial in the most highly rated world rankings of universities.

UCL climbed three places to 22nd in the annual international rankings published last week by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China.

Imperial dropped from 23 last year to 27th in the 2008 tables.

The UK has 11 universities in the world's top 100 - the second highest number after the US with 54. The universities of Cambridge and Oxford have maintained their 2007 positions of fourth and tenth in the world respectively.

The universities of Manchester and Bristol improved on their 2007 standing, climbing eight places to 40th and one place to 61st respectively. Kings College London rose two places to 81st in the world and Birmingham university climbed one place to 91st.

Seventeen of the top 20 institutions are from the US. The universities of Harvard, Stanford, and California, Berkeley maintained their 2007 first, second and third places in the league table respectively.

HAHA there we go.