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Harvard University has once again been named as the top university in the world.

The prestigious American university topped The Times Higher-QS World University Rankings 2007.

Harvard University, established in 1636, fared well due to its popularity with students and academic achievements, according to the guide compiler.

The university, which this year is top for the fourth time, is the world’s richest by some distance, outspending the research budgets of many countries.

The world's top 10 universities are all in the US or the UK, the survey found.

Britain's Oxford and Cambridge universities and America's Yale University all finished in equal second place this year.

Martin Ince, The Times Higher: "This fourth edition of The Times Higher-QS World University Rankings confirms the message of earlier editions: the top universities, on a number of measures, are in the English-speaking world."

Imperial College London took fifth spot, followed by Princeton University in sixth and California Institute of Technology in seventh.

Chicago University, University College London and Massachusetts Institute of Technology completed the coveted top 10.

Martin Ince, contributing editor of The Times Higher, said: "This fourth edition of The Times Higher-QS World University Rankings confirms the message of earlier editions: the top universities, on a number of measures, are in the English-speaking world.

"Although heavily dependent on state funding, they are independent of governments. And, in many cases, they are far from being ivory towers.

"Instead, they are active in generating new technology and ideas across a wide range of subject areas and are closely integrated into the economies and societies of which they form part."

McGill University was the best-performing educational establishment from outside of the US and the UK. The Canadian university took 12th spot, up nine places on 2006.

Australian National University finished 16th, while Hong Kong University jumped 15 places to 18th.

Other universities in the top 50 included Stanford University, Cornell University, King’s College London, University of Sydney, National University of Singapore, University of Bristol, University of Toronto, Boston University and University of Amsterdam.

The rankings use the results of a survey of more than 2,500 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.