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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) left behind all its rivals to become the world's best university for the 2012/13 academic year, according to the latest World University Rankings released by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) today.

The University of Cambridge, last year's number one, dropped one spot to a second place. Similarly, Harvard University also had to give up one spot, becoming number three in the world.

This year's rankings show that MIT was propelled to the number one place by its superior citation rates and faculty/student ratio. Its rise to the top actually coincides with a global shift in emphasis towards science and technology.

Overall, the U.S. still boasts an unmatched academic performance compared to all other nations, with six of its universities ranking in the top ten and a total of 13 listed in the top 20. The UK took up an unprecedented four of the top six places.

This year's top 50 also features five Chinese universities, of which three are located in Hong Kong: the University of Hong Kong (23th), the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (33th), the Chinese University of Hong Kong (40th). The other two schools are found on the Chinese mainland: Peking University (44th) and Tsinghua University (48th).

The QS World University Rankings have been published annually since 2004, and currently considers over 2,000 and evaluates about 700 universities worldwide. Its methodology includes six indicators: academic reputation (40%), employer reputation (10%), citations per faculty (20%), student/faculty ratio (20%), international students (5%) and international faculty (5%).

The followings are the top 20 world universities for 2012/13: