Times Higher Education released its compilation of the top universities by reputation for 2012. Topping the charts is Harvard University, followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Cambridge in the UK. Rounding out the top five are Stanford University, and the University of California, Berkeley, in that order. Overall, among the top 50 universities ranked by reputation, 30 are in the US, six are in the UK, three each are in Australia and Canada, two each are in China and Japan, and one each are in Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Switzerland. THE's ranking data are the result of a survey distributed last spring.
Over at Inside Higher Ed, Kris Olds considers why THE chose to release these rankings data now, and reflects upon whether "such rankings are improving learning and research outcomes, as well as institutional innovation."