Oxford has become the first UK university to top the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

The university beat five-times champion California Institute of Technology in the US into second place in the global table which has been published for the past 13 years.

The University of Cambridge and Imperial College London also joined the top 10 this year.

The UK now has 91 universities in the rankings  - which this year looked at 980 institutions - up from 78 last year.

It is second only to the US for the number of world-class universities featured in the top 800. Within the top 200, the UK has 32 representatives - two shy of last year’s total.

Four UK institutions have slipped out of the top 100, including the universities of Sheffield, St Andrews, Queen Mary and Exeter.

Phil Baty, the editor of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, said: “It is fantastic news that the University of Oxford has topped the World University Rankings for the first time. It is a great result for the UK higher education sector and cements its position as one of the greatest university nations in the world.

“However, the UK will have to watch out for Asia’s continuing ascent. Although the notion of Asia as the ‘next higher education superpower’ has become something of a cliché in recent years, the continent’s rise in the rankings is real and growing. China’s leading universities - Peking and Tsinghua - now make the top 40 - while the continent’s top-performer, the National University of Singapore, is higher than ever before at 24th.

“The UK’s vote to leave the EU in June is also a big threat to the country’s higher education sector, especially given that some of the country’s universities are already slipping out of the top 100, before the full effects of Brexit have begun.

To view the full rankings, click here.

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