ONLY one Scottish university has made it on to a new list of the top 100 institutions in the world.
Edinburgh University rose three places to 46th in the global league table produced by the Times Higher Education Supplement.
The rankings found Cambridge and Oxford were among the most prestigious universities in the world, coming third and fourth, but other UK institutions have lost ground.
A spokesman for Edinburgh University said: "It's always pleasing to perform positively in rankings such as this, but it needs to be borne in mind there is a variety of league tables used to rank universities nationally and internationally. They all use different criteria and positions fluctuate accordingly from year to year."
Researchers warned of a polarisation between the very top institutions in the UK, and the rest, amid increasing competition from Asian nations.
The UK has lost three universities from the top 100 in the last two years, the rankings show.
Harvard in the US took first place in the rankings.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article