By Rebecca Cook
Five of the universities on Scotland have ranked within the top 200 universities in the world.
The annual Times Higher Education world university rankings have shown that most of the universities in Scotland have dropped over the past year. Only University of Dundee ranks higher than last year.
Shocks on the 2016-17 rankings include University of Glasgow, which dropped to 88th place, and St Andrews, which fell out of the top 100.
Scotland has more universities in the world’s top 200 per head of population than most other nations in the world, beaten out by only Luxembourg.
In total, 12 universities in Scotland rank in the Times Higher Education list of 980. This represents the top 5% of the world’s universities. UK universities made up nearly 10% of this list.
The 2016-17 rankings also show a UK university ranking first – with Oxford University overtaking California Institute of Technology – for the first time.
A spokeswoman for Universities Scotland, a group that represents university principals, stated that the universities have had a “strong performance”.
She said: “With five universities in the world’s top 200 Scotland has one of the very best higher education sector in the world relative to our population.
“The benefits of that level of quality and excellence are felt much more widely than the institutions themselves. It delivers a significant return to Scotland in terms of exports, inward investment and soft power.
“Universities operate in an intensely competitive global arena. To stand still really is to fall behind and Scottish higher education is ambitious to keep excelling on the world stage.”
Scottish Minister for Further Education and Higher Education Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “I welcome these figures which underline our strength in higher education and the value with which the Scottish approach is held globally. Credit is due to the staff and students at all five universities for their hard work to achieve this.”
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