The University of Cambridge has been ranked as the fourth best university in the UK for the second year in a row, according to rankings released by The Times and Sunday Times.

In the rankings, released today (19/09), the University of Oxford slipped from 3rd place in last year’s table, this year tying at 4th place with its long-term rival.

This marks the first time in the ranking’s 32-year history that neither of the two universities has ranked within the top 3.

The London School of Economics retained its place at the top of the table, followed by St Andrews and Durham Universities. Durham took the title of The Times and The Sunday Times University of the Year.

In order, making up the rest of the top 10 are Imperial College London, the Universities of Bath and Warwick, University College London, and Bristol University.

Despite failing to improve upon its overall ranking, Cambridge was ranked as the best university in East Anglia, as well as continuing to lead in 14 subject-specific tables – more than any other university.

Cambridge ranked as the best university for Law, Biological Sciences, German, and Music, among others.

Alongside other elite Russell Group universities, Cambridge struggled in the Times and Sunday Times’s social inclusion rankings, which are published alongside the academic table. Cambridge ranked second from bottom in this criteria, with Exeter taking last place and Oxford seventh last.

The Times classes universities by social inclusion according to the diversity of their student intake, as well as how these students perform in their degrees.

In the rankings, Oxford had a higher percentage of privately-educated students compared to Cambridge (31.5% versus 26.6% respectively).

However, this statistic came alongside the fact that Cambridge had a higher proportion of students who attended selective grammar schools compared to Oxford (23.5% versus 16.9%).

The publication of the guide comes after the Complete University Guide released its rankings in June, placing Cambridge as the best university in the UK, and top in 26 subjects.

Meanwhile, the global AWRU rankings – released in August – listed Cambridge as the 4th best university in the world, ahead of Oxford in 6th but behind US universities Harvard, Stanford, and MIT.

Similarly, the QS World University rankings released in June placed Imperial College London first out of the UK universities, with Oxford and Cambridge coming respectively in the next two places.

University rankings have come under criticism recently by detractors, including in a report by a UN Independent Expert Group, which criticised them for being non-transparent. Despite this, the University of Cambridge continue to advertise itself based on strong placements in rankings.

One student commented that “it would be unwise to attach undue significance to the judgements of a narrow set of rankings curated by a handful of journalists to decide the holistic qualities of this country’s universities,” continuing that the university should focus on “ensuring a robust, world-leading education which serves its students”.

Another student described the rankings as a “fun gotcha moment when joking with friends,” but that they otherwise pay them little thought.

The release of the rankings also comes amid an announcement yesterday (18/09) by the Office for Students, the independent regulating body for English higher education, of proposals for a new quality assessment system for universities in England that could help compare institutions.

The University of Cambridge has been contacted for comment.