World's top universities.

Every year the Times Higher Education Supplement publishes a list of the World top universities.

Though not without it's criticisms, Universities get worried when their rankings slip and proudly publicise it when they go up.

So how exactly they come up with the rankings have been the focus of countless debates and not helped by the fact that their methodology keeps on changing. However, the Times defends it: "methodology continues to be refined".

There are five principal criteria for their rankings:

1. Research/publication Quality: 40%
Composite score drawn from peer review

2. Citations per Faculty: 20%
Score based on research performance factored against the size of the research body

3. Graduate Employability: 10%
Score based on responses to recruiter survey.

4. International Outlook: 10%
International Faculty- Score based on proportion of international faculty: 5%
International Students- Score based on proportion of international students: 5%

5. Teaching Quality: 20%
Score based on student/faculty ratio