New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D) and Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) have been ranked amongst the Top 200 Universities of the World this year, the list of which is dominated by educational institutions from the US and UK.

The survey, called the 'THE - QS World University Rankings 2008', ranked IIT-Delhi and IIT-Bombay at 154 and 174 positions respectively.

Last year, the two institutes were ranked at 254 and 269 respectively.

List of Top 200 Universities - 2008

No other Indian university has been able to make it to the Top 200 Universities' list, which has as many as nine Asian institutes among the top 50, including three based in Hong Kong.

The institutions identified by the 'Times Higher Education (THE) - QS World University Rankings', as the World's top universities in 2008, represent 20 countries with Israel represented for the first time. Whilst North America dominates with 42 universities, Europe and Asia Pacific are well represented with 36 and 22 respectively.

The list has been topped by Harvard University (United States) followed by Yale University (United States) and University of Cambridge (United Kingdom.)

The University of Oxford (United Kingdom) has been ranked 4th.

China has as many as five varsities in the Top 200, with Peking University placed at 50 and Tsinghua University at 56.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Seoul National University are the two new entrants into the list this year.

Highlights of the 2008 Rankings:

- Top 10: the UK and USA continue to dominate - Harvard University remains as the top university, with Yale moving ahead of Cambridge for the second spot. Oxford drops to fourth, while Princeton drops out of the top ten, replaced by the only new entrant in the Top 10, Columbia University.

- Top 50: 13 countries feature in the top 50 compared to 12 in 2007. New entrants include Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, University of Copenhagen, Trinity College Dublin, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and Seoul National University.

- Top 100: the top 100 sees the number of Asian universities remain at 13 for the second year in a row, but the number of North American universities has dropped to 42 (43 in 2007). European universities increase to 36 (35 in 2007). New entrants in the Top 100 include: Washington University in St. Louis, University of Geneva, University of Aarhus, University of Minnesota, Lund University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, KAIST - Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, University of Virginia, University of California, Santa Barbara.

- Top 200: universities from 33 different countries (28 countries in 2007) are represented in the top 200. New entrants in the Top 200 include: Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Stony Brook University (USA), Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D), VU University Amsterdam, University of Lausanne (Switzerland), Chulalongkorn University (Thailand), Universität Frankfurt am Main, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B), Lomonosov Moscow State University , Brandeis University (USA), Pohang University of Science and Technology (Korea), Technische Universität Berlin, University of Bern, Dalhousie University (Canada), University of Buenos Aires, University of Athens.