By Kelly Heyboer | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

You can probably name some of the most elite universities in the state. But, how do they compare to Oxford? Or the University of Melbourne? Or the National University of Singapore?

U.S. News and World Report ranked the best universities on the planet in a new Best Global Universities ranking released Tuesday. The list includes 1,250 top universities from 75 countries.

One local school – Princeton University – ranked in the top 10. Three other New Jersey campuses also made the list.

“Higher education continues to be more global, meaning that prospective students are looking beyond universities in their country when thinking about where to enroll,” said Anita Narayan, managing editor of education at U.S. News.

Here are the top 20 Best Global Universities – followed by where New Jersey's colleges ranked:

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20. University of Toronto

Location: Canada

Last year's rank: 20th

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(MLive.com file photo)

18. (tie) University of Michigan

Location: U.S.

Last year's rank: 17th (tie)

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18. (tie) Imperial College London

Location: U.K.

Last year's rank: 17th (tie)

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17. University of California - San Diego

Location: U.S.

Last year's rank: 16th

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16. University of Pennsylvania

Location: U.S.

Last year's rank: 19th

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15. University of California- San Francisco

Location: U.S.

Last year's rank: 15th

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(University of Chicago)

14. University of Chicago

Location: U.S.

Last year's rank: 14th

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13. University of California - Los Angeles

Location: U.S.

Last year's rank: 13th

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12. Johns Hopkins University

Location: U.S.

Last year's rank: 10th (tie)

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11. Yale University

Location: U.S.

Last year's rank: 10th (tie)

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10. University of Washington- Seattle

Location: U.S.

Last year's rank: 10th (tie)

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(Princeton University)

9. Princeton University

Location: U.S.

Last year's rank: 9th

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8. Columbia University

Location: U.S.

Last year's rank: 8th

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7. University of Cambridge

Location: U.K.

Last year's rank: 7th

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6. California Institute of Technology

Location: U.S.

Last year's rank: 6th

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5. University of Oxford

Location: U.K.

Last year's rank: 5th

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(AP file photo)

4. University of California- Berkeley

Location: U.S.

Last year's rank: 4th

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3. Stanford University

Location: U.S.

Last year's rank: 3rd

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2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Location: U.S.

Last year's rank: 2nd

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1. Harvard University

Location: U.S.

Last year's rank: 1st

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Here's where the three other New Jersey campuses ranked:

103. Rutgers University - New Brunswick

782. New Jersey Institute of Technology

1001. Rutgers University - Newark

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(Princeton University)

Why didn't New Jersey's universities rank higher?

Princeton University has ranked as the top college in the country on U.S. News and World Report's annual list of U.S. schools for several years. But it ranked 9th on the Top Global Universities list.

Rutgers came in 56th on the national list this year. But, it didn't make the top 100 on the global list.

Both New Jersey colleges ranked lower on the Top Global Universities list because the magazine uses a different set of criteria for the worldwide list, U.S. News' editors said.

The global rankings put more emphasis on international research than the U.S. rankings. That helped other universities rise above Rutgers and Princeton in the ranking.

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Which countries have the best universities?

Here are are the nations with the most schools on the 1,250-college list:

1. United States - 227 schools

2. China - 130 school

3. United Kingdom- 78 schools

4. Japan - 67 schools

5. Germany - 62 schools

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What is the highest-ranked university on each continent?

Africa

University of Cape Town (South Africa)

Asia

National University of Singapore

Australia

University of Melbourne

Europe

University of Oxford

Latin America

Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil)

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Read more about N.J. colleges:

Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KellyHeyboer. Find her at KellyHeyboerReporter on Facebook.