australia 3rd in international uni table.

Here is something that should make every Australian -irrespective of political beliefs- proud......

Australian universities have placed third in a international ranking of the top 200 universities, with Melbourne Uni leading the pack in 19th spot.

America's Harvard retained its place as the top institution in The Times newspaper's Higher Education Supplement 2005 world university rankings, the British daily says.

Fellow US university the Massachusetts Institute of Technology moved up a position to second place, while ancient British universities Cambridge and Oxford leapfrogged US rivals Stanford and Berkeley into third and fourth place respectively.

The United States is home to 54 of the top 200 universities, with Britain home to 24, ahead of Australia in third place with 17.

The only Australian university to rank in the top 20 world universities for 2005 is Melbourne University at number 19, moving up from its 2004 ranking at number 22.

The second annual rankings gauge the views of 2,375 academics from across the world.

These are combined with measures including the number of times that research papers are cited by academic colleagues, staff-to-student ratios and the number of students and staff recruited from overseas.

This year's analysis also includes a measure based on the views of international employers on which universities they prefer to recruit from.

The world's top 200 universities are in 31 countries, the rankings revealed.

All but two are in Europe, Asia or North America.

The exceptions are the National Autonomous University of Mexico and Sao Paulo in Brazil.

Source: ABC On Line.