Cambridge has been named the world’s seventh highest-ranking university by the Times Higher Education University Rankings 2013-2014, holding onto its position from last year.

The California Institute of Technology has been ranked as the world’s leading university for the third year running, followed by Harvard University and Oxford, which hold joint second place.

The Times Higher Education (THE) University Rankings are widely considered to be amongst the most prestigious world university rankings, alongside the QS World University Rankings and the Academic Rankings of World Universities (ARWU). In judging a university’s place in the rankings, the THE University Rankings give particular weighting to the standards of teaching, research and extent of influence of research. They are the only world university rankings to put arts, humanities and social sciences research on an equal footing with the sciences.

The rankings confirm the UK as the strongest nation in the higher education sector outside the US. They place thirty-one UK universities within the world top 200. The US has seven universities in the top 10 places and seventy-seven in the rankings overall.

However, concerns have been raised over an apparent pattern of decline amongst some UK universities. While the ‘golden triangle’ of London, Oxford and Cambridge has made net gains on the table – with London boasting four top-40 universities (more than any other city) and six world top 200 universities – many universities from outside the Southeast have been demoted.

Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Warwick, Southampton, Nottingham and Newcastle universities have all fallen one or more places. Some of these universities have fallen over three consecutive years. The University of Manchester, which was ranked 48th in the world in 2011-12 has now fallen to 58th place. Likewise, Bristol University, ranked 66th in 2011-12, is now in 79th place.

Phil Baty, editor of the Times Higher Education Rankings, said: “While the UK remains stable nationally, this masks significant movement among individual institutions. Our analysts have found that there are clear signs of increasing diversification in the UK system, suggesting that marketisation is driving change and causing greater stratification.”

With a growing North-South divide apparent in other major sectors the shift in higher education quality and research capabilities away from major regions in the UK could have major economic impacts, chief among them a diminished ability to attract and nurture investment. An example of this phenomenon is provided by pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca’s decision earlier this year to relocate its main research facility from Cheshire to Cambridge, citing considerations about proximity to world-class research in the biosciences and access to talented and highly trained researchers.

The trend of concentrating higher education in London and the Southeast is underlined by the growing prevalence of UK universities based outside London setting up London campuses. The University of Liverpool in London and Coventry University are amongst these. Loughborough University has recently announced plans to establish a campus in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, to be opened in 2015.

From a wider perspective the rankings show a shift towards the dominance of East Asian, as opposed to European, universities. Leading universities in Austria, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Russia, Belgium, Switzerland, and Ireland all fell. ETH Zürich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, the world number one university outside the US and the UK, slipped two places to 14th. Germany’s University of Munich fell out of the world top 50.

This contrasts with progress for the majority of top East Asian Universities. Leading institutions in China, South Korea, Singapore and Japan made gains. The University of Tokyo maintained its status as Asia’s number one university, gaining four places to become 23rd worldwide.

“The vast majority of continental Europe’s leading institutions have slipped, while those leading the East Asian nations have for the most part risen yet again”, said Baty. He sees this as a long-term pattern. He said, “More Asian institutions are nipping at the heels of the best in the West, increasingly occupying world top 50 places and showing no signs of letting up.”