Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is ranked as the world’s best university.

Oxford university is placed at number five in the table compiled by QS World University Rankings.

University College London climbed from number seven last year to number four in the new rankings, Imperial College London is ranked sixth.

The QS rankings are compiled using six indicators: academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty/student ratio, citations per faculty, international faculty ration and international student ratio.

The QS rankings results are based on surveys of over 46,000 academics and 28,000 employers.