The University of Auckland has moved up a list of the world's top universities, and remains the only New Zealand university to rank in the top 100.
Auckland University came in at equal 61st on the list published in London's Times Higher Education, up from 65th place last year.
The university peaked at 46th in 2006, while Otago University was equal 79th that year, but dropped to equal 124th last year.
The list of the top 200 universities would be released tomorrow, and was expected to include Otago and Canterbury Universities.
The top places were dominated by United States and British institutions: Harvard in the United States top, followed by Cambridge (UK), Yale (US), University College of London, with Imperial College London and Oxford were equal fifth.
The leading Australian tertiary institutions were the Australian National University (17th) and University of Sydney and University of Melbourne (equal 36th).
Three other Australian universities were in the top 50, while 13 of the top 20 universities were in the United States.
Only 36 North American universities ranked in the top 100, compared with 42 last year, which the report said reflected the growing presence of Asian and European universities.
The rankings were decided based on survey responses from 9386 academics and 3281 employers.
