Oxford is world’s top university

LONDON: The University of Oxford, the oldest university in the Englishspeaking world and feeder for the British elite, has topped a global education ranking for the first time, but its vice-chancellor warned that Brexit could damage its long-term prospects.

Oxford knocked the leader for the last five years, California Institute of Technology, into second place in the Times Higher Education’s global league table, which also saw Chinese universities climb rapidly.

Oxford, which educated four of the last six British prime ministers, ousted its US rival after its research funding rose 10% and overall funding rose to £1.4 billion (63 billion baht), while the impact of its research increased, said Phil Baty, editor of the rankings.

But Mr Baty said Britain’s exit from the EU “is a serious risk to our success” by making it harder to attract top academic staff and plug them into research projects. Brexit risks driving away students, staff and funding, Oxford’s vice-chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson, told BBC radio.

Ms Richardson said rival universities had stepped up efforts to poach the 17% of Oxford’s faculty who are EU citizens, and whose status in Britain was no longer guaranteed following the June 23 vote.

While Oxford, the University of Cambridge and London’s Imperial College make the top 10 along with ETH Zurich, the list is dominated by US universities.

More broadly, the rankings showed institutions in Asia had made progress with two new Asian universities — the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology — now in the 100 and another four joining the top 200. Peking University rose to 29th place from 42, and Tsinghua ranked 35, up from 47th last year. Asian institutions were “powering up the ranking”, Mr Baty said, with the Chinese government pumping billions of dollars into its universities.