University of Edinburgh falls one place to 30th in annual world rankings guide

THE UNIVERSITY of Edinburgh has fallen one place in an annual ranking of the world's top higher education establishments - despite retaining its place as Scotland's best.

Edinburgh Napier dropped out of the top 800 universities in the world, according to the Times Higher Education (THE) guide, while Queen Margaret failed to make the top 1,000.

However, Heriot Watt bucked the trend for Capital students as it broke into the top 300 for the first time.

The University of Edinburgh's 30th place finish, down from 29th the year before, is its lowest ranking since 2014, when it placed 36th.

More than 29,000 students in full time education study at the University - 41 per cent of whom are counted as 'international,' the guide said.

The annual list rates more than 1,300 universities in 92 countries on five areas; teaching, research, citations, industry income and international outlook.

Only the top 200 are given a specific rank, with the others included in brackets.

Glasgow was the only other Scottish establishment to rank in the top 100, placing 99th.

But Napier dropped into the 801-1000 section for the first time after three years in the 601-800 category.

The University of Aberdeen was 168th equal, St Andrews crept into the the top 200 in 198th, while Dundee retained its place in the top 250.

Stirling placed in the 351-400 bracket, Strathclyde in the 401-500 section and Glasgow Caledonian in the 600-801 category.

The University of Oxford topped the 2020 rankings, followed by the California Institute of Technology and the University of Cambridge.

US-based universities made up the majority of the top ten with Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Harvard, Yale and the University of Chicago ranking ahead of Imperial College London in tenth.