Caltech has just pipped Harvard to take top spot on this year’s Times Higher Education university rankings.

The annual list of the world’s top universities is once again dominated by US institutions, which take 14 of the top 20 spots. Of the remaining six, four are filled by universities in the UK, with Switzerland and Canada making up the numbers.

Times Higher Education – which is no longer affiliated with The Times newspaper – uses data from Thomson Reuters to score institutions in five categories: teaching (30% of total score); research (30%); citations (30%); international outlook (7.5%); industry income (2.5%).

Caltech’s triumph is in stark contrast to their ranking on the rival QS university list. QS worked with the Times Higher until 2010, and on their ranking Caltech comes in 12th, with Cambridge taking top spot.

As well as providing an opportunity for people to check where their alma mater ranks, these lists remain influential among both prospective students and policy makers. But they have come in for increasing criticism in recent years, prompting something of a shake up (see: University rankings smarten up).