The 10 universities ranked at the top of Shanghai Ranking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) last year have all retained their place in the top 10 for 2016, despite some shuffling up and down.

The 2016 Shanghai Ranking results confirm Harvard University as number one in the world for the fourteenth year running. Stanford University also retained second place while Berkeley and University of Cambridge both climbed one place.

Eight of the top universities are in the United States, with Oxford and Cambridge completing the list of elite institutions in the top 10. One Swiss and one Japanese university make it in to the top 20.

Shanghai Ranking results by subject

-Shanghai subject ranking 2016 overview

-Full results for life and agriculture sciences

-Full results for natural sciences and maths

-Full results for engineering, technology and computer sciences

-Full results for clinical medicine and pharmacy

-Full results for social sciences

Asia has broken new ground in this year’s ranking, with universities in China and Singapore in the top 100 for the first time. Tsinghua University in China is the country’s best university in 58th position, and the National University of Singapore is the country’s top entry at position 83.

ETH Zurich (19th overall) takes first place in continental Europe, while the University of Copenhagen (31st) in Denmark overtakes Pierre & Marie Curie (39th) in France as the second best European university outside the UK. The University of Melbourne in 40th place is the highest performing country in Oceania.

In total, 500 universities are ranked from across the world based on six indicators. These include the number of award-winning staff and alumni and the number of articles published in prestigious journals Nature and Science.

Outside the top 100, universities are banded into groups of 50 or 100 to accommodate statistically insignificant variations in scores at this level.

The ARWU has been published annually since 2013 by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy. It provides a different view of the best universities in the world to the Times Higher Education's World University Rankings 2016 which ranks 800 universities.

Top 5 universities in the 2016 Shanghai Ranking

Harvard is probably the most prestigious university in the world, so it is no surprise that it tops the Shanghai Ranking every year and also takes the highest place in Times Higher Education’s reputation survey.

The university is highly residential and has a strong emphasis on research. It has produced 62 living billionaires, around 150 Nobel Laureates and eight US presidents.

Harvard’s campus is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just a short distance away from Boston.

Stanford is probably best known for its huge impact on the development of technology and innovative business; the university was partially responsible for the growth of Silicon Valley next door, and many of its students, alumni and staff are involved in some of the most influential businesses and start-ups.

The main campus is next to Palo Alto, close to San Francisco, and covers a significant area of land with many faculty buildings, residences, museums, gardens and a new meditation centre.

If companies founded by Stanford alumni were a country, they would be the 10th largest economy in the world, generating more than $2.7 trillion annually.

Berkeley, also near San Francisco, is the oldest institution in the University of California system. It was founded in 1868 and now offers around 350 undergraduate and graduate degree programmes.

Researchers and alumni affiliated with the university are extremely successful, winning a total of 72 Nobel prizes, 105 Olympic gold medals, and many other prestigious awards.

The historic campus was the result of a nationwide architectural competition in 1898 and 1899. Many of the buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

As the only UK university in the top five, the University of Cambridge provides a significantly different student experience. Students live and mostly learn in small colleges, each of which has a distinct character and traditions.

Cambridge is one of the oldest universities in the world, founded in 1209. Many famous figures have attended the university, including prime ministers, scientists and writers.

Students at Cambridge receive a high amount of personal tuition, through tutorials with just one or two of their peers.

Based next door Harvard, MIT is located in a hub of research and learning. Although it specialises in science and technology, it also boasts world-leading arts and humanities programmes.

Like Stanford, MIT has a strong entrepreneurial culture, and adopted the European polytechnic university model when it was founded in 1861.

The campus displays unusual architecture designed by famous architects including Frank O. Gehry and William Welles Bosworth.

Undergraduates are guaranteed housing for four years in a campus dormitory, which fosters strong communities and social atmospheres.

Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2016: full results

Click each university name to view its Times Higher Education World University Rankings profile

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