Harvard University in the US has retained its spot as the best university in the world, according to new university rankings.

Harvard is one of seven US universities to make the top ten which also includes the UK's Cambridge and Oxford Universities.

And with American establishments receiving far more funding than others around the world, their dominance has continued.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology is now ranked second in the annual league table from The Times Higher Education Supplement while Cambridge University moved up three places to third.

Oxford University gained one place to finish fourth and Stanford University rose two to fifth.

University of California-Berkeley, Yale University, California Institute of Technology, Princeton University and Ecole Polytechnique complete the top ten.

Beijing University moved up two places to 15 while Tokyo University slipped four spots to 16.

Australia's Melbourne University jumped into the top twenty this year, moving up three places to 19.

The rankings use the results of a survey of 2,375 academics from across the globe. These are combined with a series of measures including staff-to-student ratios, number of students and staff from overseas, and the number of times that research papers are cited by academics.