Top universities turn to foreign students to bolster income The QS World University Rankings rate 700 institutions by the quality of research, teaching and graduate job prospects. The latest tables rank the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the world's top university. Cambridge University, the top-ranked institution in Britain, was rated second and Harvard third. Four of the top six were British, with University College London fourth, Oxford fifth and Imperial College London sixth. The rankings suggest that top universities across the world have become increasingly reliant on foreign students. The world's leading 100 universities recruited an average of almost 10 per cent more international students this year than in 2011 - the biggest increase in the rankings" nine-year history. It emerged that the 49 British institutions in the top 500 posted an average annual increase of 11.7 per cent. The London School of Economics, the School of Oriental and African Studies, University College London, St Andrews, Imperial College and Essex had the highest proportion of overseas students. Wendy Piatt, the director general of the Russell Group of 24 leading British universities, said: "As it seeks to clamp down on abuses of the visa system, the Government must be careful not to push the best and the brightest students away from the UK and into the arms of our competitors." Ben Sowter, QS head of research, said the increase in overseas students "may prove to be a surge prior to the introduction of higher fees" for British students.