By Patrick Collins

Published by The Times and Quacquarelli Symonds, the THES-QS World University Rankings points out the 200 best universities in the world. The University of Barcelona is the only Spanish institution that figures on the list.

For the third year in a row, the educational magazine Times Higher Education Supplement and the consulting firm Qacquarelli Symonds have published the World University Rankings study that classifies world universities according to indicators such as peer reviewing, teacher-to-student ratio, internationalization rates and number of research citations. Since its first publication in 2004, this ranking has generated tremendous international interest.

Among the 200 most highly valued universities in the world for 2006, Harvard University maintains its claim to first place for the third consecutive year. US institutions figure among 7 of the 10 top positions, while the other 3 are occupied by British universities. This year, Cambridge took the second spot from MIT, which fell two points down to fourth, along with Yale. Oxford also gained one point, classifying as the third best university in the world.

The North American universities form the largest group within the rankings; of the top 50, 23 are in the US and 2 in Canada. Stanford University, California Institute of Technology and University of California, Berkely respectively occupy the sixth, seventh and eighth positions.

There are 10 European universities between positions 40 and 86, 6 more than in last year's ranking. The UK has 3 universities within the top 10 (Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial College) and another 3 within the top 30; London School of Economics, University College London and the University of Edinburgh.

The only Spanish institution to figure within the ranking is Barcelona University, which comes in at 190. Not the highest that could have been hoped for, but an improvement nonetheless considering it's the first time a Spanish university has made it on the list.

The ranking expands to list the 520 best universities in the world, a list that includes more Spanish universities, such as the Universidad Complutense in Madrid at 239 and the Universidad de Navarra at 288.

In order to compile the ranking this year interviews have been performed with 3,703 professors and 736 licensed workers throughout the world, a significantly broader investigation than the one performed last year. One of the new facets of the study includes a guide to the best universities, published as Top Universities Guide. This publication provides added details on the institutions listed and provides comments and advice from alumni at each of the 100 top-ranked universities.