Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are top of a global league table of university reputation - in a top 100 dominated by US institutions.

Cambridge and Oxford make the top 10 - but other UK universities have slipped, while Asian institutions have risen.

The rankings are based on the perceptions of 17,000 academics.

This list is an attempt to quantify the elusive but important quality of "reputation" in higher education - with its findings based on the opinions of academics around the world.

The first such ranking by the Times Higher Education magazine, published last year, had the same top five as this year - with the two Boston-based institutions, Harvard and MIT, in first and second place.

Cambridge was once again the highest ranking UK university in third place, followed by Stanford and University of California, Berkeley.

But Phil Baty, editor of the Times Higher Education rankings, says there is an underlying picture of UK universities heading downwards - with fewer in the top 100 and a decline for others including Imperial College London and University College London.

"Our global reputation as the home of outstanding universities has been hit," he said.

Reflecting the rise of Asian countries as the new education superpowers, there is an increasing presence for countries such as China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.

Switzerland is also seen as performing well, relative to its population, with three universities in the top 100.

Such rankings do not have an official status, but they have become an increasingly significant part of how universities market themselves to students, particularly as higher education has become more globalised.

This latest league table reinforces the emergence of "global superbrands", headed by institutions such as Stanford on the US West Coast and Harvard on the East Coast, and Oxford and Cambridge in the UK.

 Vocabulary:

league table: 排行榜，积分榜

英国泰晤士高等教育特刊近日公布最新全球大学名气榜，哈佛大学与麻省理工学院高踞前两名，美国大学在上榜的百所大学中优势明显。

剑桥大学和牛津大学跻身前十，但其他的英国高校排名下降，亚洲大学的声誉排名呈上升趋势。

该排行榜征求了1.7万名学者的意见与看法。

该排行榜试图根据全球受访学者的意见，对难以衡量但很重要的高校“声誉”质量进行量化。

英国泰晤士高等教育特刊于去年开始发布，前五名高校与今年相同，两所位于波士顿的名校、哈佛大学和麻省理工学院也位于前两位。

剑桥大学排名第三，仍然是排名最高的英国高校，位居其后的是斯坦福大学和加州大学伯克利分校。

但该排行榜的编辑费尔•巴迪说，可以看出，英国高校的排名将会下滑，排名前一百位的英国高校减少了，其他多所英国高校排名也在下降，包括帝国理工学院和英国伦敦大学学院。

他说：“我们作为全球知名大学聚集地的声誉遭到重创。”

来自中国、日本、新加坡和韩国的入围高校增多，这也反映出亚洲国家作为新的教育强国的崛起。

瑞士表现也不俗，相对于较少的人口来说，有三所大学上榜已经相当不易。

这一排名没有得到官方认可，但在大学如何把自己推销给学生的过程中起着越来越重要的作用，特别是在高等教育全球化的今天。

这份最新排名进一步印证了“全球高校巨头”的出现，领头的则是美国西海岸的斯坦福大学、东海岸的哈佛大学、以及英国的牛津和剑桥大学。