Caltech tops prestigious world university rankings

Caltech has been ranked the world's best research university by a British higher education magazine, beating Harvard University in the ranking for the first time.

The Pasadena university, which specializes in science and engineering, was honored as the top institution in the World University Rankings released by the Times Higher Education magazine in London. Harvard had topped the list each year since the rankings began in 2004, but it was tied for second this year, along with Stanford University. The University of California system had five campuses ranked in the top 40 worldwide.

Caltech placed second last year and its rise to first by a small margin over Harvard was attributed mainly to increases in its research funding, according to an analysis of the World University Rankings. The listing relies heavily on measurements of research budgets, faculty publication of papers and the impact of such research.

"It’s not that Harvard has declined. It’s that Caltech has just slightly edged across the line in the indicators," Phil Baty, the rankings’ editor, said in an interview Wednesday.