The UK is home to the top two institutions in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the first time in the 14-year history of the table.

The University of Oxford has held on to the number one spot for the second year in a row, while the University of Cambridge has jumped from fourth to second place.

Cambridge’s rise comes at the expense of the California Institute of Technology, which was number one between 2012 and 2016, number two last year, and now shares third position with Stanford.

One reason for the movement is that Cambridge’s research income and research quality improved this year, while Caltech and Stanford were hurt by drops to their PhD-to-bachelor’s ratios. Caltech also received a much more modest rise in its research income per academic staff member compared with the other three institutions.

The US universities’ institutional income also dropped by 23% and 24%, respectively, while Cambridge and Oxford each received a boost in revenue (by 11% and 24%, respectively).

Overall, 31 UK institutions feature in the top 200 and 93 are in the top 1,000.

The latest table suggests that the US and Australia’s standing in the table in future years could also be threatened.

Nearly all of the US’ top-200 representatives (59 out of 62) faced drops in their research income per academic staff member and future levels of federal research income under the Trump administration are in doubt. Two-fifths of the universities in this elite group (29) have dropped ranks.

Meanwhile, although Australia has maintained a relatively steady performance, its position in future years may suffer if the government goes ahead with plans to cut funding by 2.5 per cent.

Both countries, as well as nations in Europe, face competition from rapidly rising institutions in Asia. Malta's University does not feature on the list.