The University of Cambridge has been ranked fifth in the world in the Times World University Rankings for the second year running.

The University was once again beaten by Oxford, who have taken first place for the last nine years. Oxford was followed by MIT, Harvard, and Princeton which took the second, third, and fourth spots respectively.

Oxford and Cambridge were the only UK universities in the top five of the global ranking, with their closest UK competitor being Imperial College London, who placed ninth.

Cambridge came second in life sciences and third in arts and humanities, while rankings for STEM subjects remain lower in Physics (fifth), Engineering (fifth) and Computer Science (seventh). However, the University ranked especially highly in Medicine, placing third for clinical and health.

Cambridge ranked third in 2020, but fell to sixth in 2021. They have since remained consistently in the top five, rising to third for one year in 2023.

Cambridge’s maintained position in the top five universities in the world goes against the general trend in the UK, who have seen a “rapid decline” in their average research and teaching reputation in the past decade.

This comes after Cambridge ranked fourth in The Times Higher Education UK Ranking for 2025, dropping below the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE), St. Andrews, and Oxford.

Times University rankings focus on research, percentage of international students and teaching. While Cambridge came fifth, they have significantly more students per staff member than Stanford or Yale, both of whom ranked lower than Cambridge this year.

With 11.5 students per staff member at Cambridge and a ranking of 97.4 (down 0.1 from 2024), Cambridge has remained in the top five universities globally, despite quickly increasing rankings for Chinese universities.

A spokesperson for the University said: “The University of Cambridge is delighted to celebrate three new Nobel Prize-winners this week and also pleased to be recognised in the THE World Rankings as one of the top five universities in the world.”