LONDON, Oct. 9: Cambridge and Oxford universities have lost ground to Harvard and Yale, while fewer British universities are in the top 200 list than last year, according to a report published in the Times on Thursday

Harvard tops the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings for the fifth consecutive year. Its endowment fund is greater than the total annual public funding for all universities in England.

Yale holds the second spot after being joint second with Cambridge and Oxford last year. The two British institutions came third and fourth respectively this year.

Four British universities are in the top 10, the same as last year. Imperial College London fell from fifth to sixth place while University College London rose from ninth to seventh.

In all, 17 universities in Britain made it into the top 100 list, down from 19 last year. More than a third of the top 100 are based in the US.

The Times rankings had 29 British universities in the top 200, one fewer than last year. Of these, 22 had slipped down the rankings. The rise of Asian institutions is reflected in the inclusion of nine of them within the top 50, including three based in Hong Kong. Two new entrants this year are Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Seoul National University.

The rankings, which are now in their fifth year, are based on surveys of academics and graduate employers about which they consider the best universities in their fields.