The University of Auckland has jumped 10 places from 92nd place to 82nd.

The latest global university rankings show a mixed bag for New Zealand's tertiary learning institutions.

New Zealand has eight universities featured in the QS World University rankings but only two are named in the top 200.

The University of Auckland holds the highest rating, sitting at 82nd place up 10 places since 2014.

All eight universities have lost ground in the employer reputation category with only the University of Auckland in the top 200 in this category.

The QS World University rankings is an annual league table of the top universities in the world.

Massachussetts Institute of Technology, better known as MIT, retains its place as the top learning institution in the world. Harvard University and the University of Cambridge round out the top three.

Seven of the eight New Zealand universities have jumped at least slightly in the rankings this year.

Further down the rankings, the University of Otago sits at 173, a slight dip from its 159th placing in 2014, and the University of Canterbury sits at 211th, up from 242nd last year.

Those institutions are followed by Wellington's Victoria University at 229th, Massey University at 337th, the University of Waikato at 338th and Lincoln University at 373rd. AUT is at 481st place.

The survey also shows New Zealand universities are rated highly in their ability to attract international students and faculty members.

Six of the world's top 100 universities by international faculty are in New Zealand, and seven are in the top 250 globally by the number of international students they attract.

The survey also ranks universities by department with the University of Auckland topping local institutions in arts and humanities at 28th place, and in social sciences at 36th place.

No New Zealand university has one of the world's top 100 natural sciences departments.

The rankings are based on four categories: research, teaching, employability and internationalisation and the methodology consists of six indicators: academic reputation (40 per cent), employer reputation (10 per cent), faculty/student ratio (20 per cent), citations per faculty (20 per cent), international students (5 per cent), and international faculty (5 per cent).

The surveys canvassed more than 76,000 academics and 44,000 employers while compiling the results.