Its of dream of every students to read in the number one university of the world, if not one of the top university of the world. But its a sad reality that every students cant afford to read in to those university, because of many constraints. Like prevous years, this year also Universities of Developed countries like USA, UK , Australia are in the top list of word universities ranking. Its a very sad reality that though Six (6) fully functional university e.g. Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu University, Pokhara University, Purbanchal University, Nepal Sanskrit University, and Lumbini Buddha University, none of these are in top 500 list of universities.

Methods used for ranking

Universities are ranked by several indicators of academic or research performance, including alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, highly cited researchers, papers published in Nature and Science, papers indexed in major citation indices, and the per capita academic performance of an institution. For each indicator, the highest scoring institution is assigned a score of 100, and other institutions are calculated as a percentage of the top score.

The distribution of data for each indicator is examined for any significant distorting effect; standard statistical techniques are used to adjust the indicator if necessary. Scores for each indicator are weighted as shown below to arrive at a final overall score for an institution. The highest scoring institution is assigned a score of 100, and other institutions are calculated as a percentage of the top score.

Academic Ranking of World Universities - 2012

World Rank	Institution*	National Rank	Total Score	Score on
1	Harvard University	1	100	100
2	Stanford University	2	72.8	38
3	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	3	71.8	69
4	University of California, Berkeley	4	71.6	67.5
5	University of Cambridge	1	69.8	80.3
6	California Institute of Technology	5	64.1	48.5
7	Princeton University	6	62.1	52.3
8	Columbia University	7	60.1	64.2
9	University of Chicago	8	57.2	61.8
10	University of Oxford	2	56.1	51.2
11	Yale University	9	54.8	45.7
12	University of California, Los Angeles	10	52.2	27.7
13	Cornell University	11	50.8	38.7
14	University of Pennsylvania	12	50.5	33.4
15	University of California, San Diego	13	49.6	20.3
16	University of Washington	14	48.4	22.4
17	The Johns Hopkins University	15	47.4	39.9
18	University of California, San Francisco	16	46.6	0
19	University of Wisconsin - Madison	17	45.4	32.5
20	The University of Tokyo	1	43.8	32.5
21	University College London	3	43.7	29.7
22	University of Michigan - Ann Arbor	18	43.4	33.9
23	Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich	1	43.3	31.2
24	The Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine	4	42.4	15.3
25	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	19	41.9	31.6
26	Kyoto University	2	41.3	31.2
27	New York University	20	40.8	29.7
27	University of Toronto	1	40.8	21
29	University of Minnesota, Twin Cities	21	39.7	27.7
30	Northwestern University	22	38.8	16.3
31	Washington University in St. Louis	23	37.6	19.6
32	Rockefeller University	24	37	18
33	University of Colorado at Boulder	25	36.6	13.3
34	University of California, Santa Barbara	26	36.5	15.3
35	The University of Texas at Austin	27	35.8	17.1
36	Duke University	28	35.2	16.3
37	University of Paris Sud (Paris 11)	1	34.9	32.1
38	University of Maryland, College Park	29	34.7	20.3
39	University of British Columbia	2	34.6	16.3
40	The University of Manchester	5	33.9	19.6
41	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	30	33.5	9.4
42	Karolinska Institute	1	33.4	23.6
42	Pierre and Marie Curie University - Paris 6	2	33.4	32.5
44	University of Copenhagen	1	33.1	23
45	University of California, Irvine	31	32.2	0
46	University of Southern California	32	31.9	0
47	University of California, Davis	33	31.8	0
48	The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas	34	31.6	19.6
49	Pennsylvania State University - University Park	35	31.5	10.8
50	Vanderbilt University	36	31.4	16.3
51	Carnegie Mellon University	37	30.6	33.4
51	The University of Edinburgh	6	30.6	21.7
53	Technical University Munich	1	30.5	36.8
53	The Hebrew University of Jerusalem	1	30.5	33.9
53	Utrecht University	1	30.5	24.3
56	Purdue University - West Lafayette	38	30.2	14.3
57	University of Melbourne	1	30.1	18
58	University of Pittsburgh	39	30	19.6
59	University of Zurich	2	29.9	5.4
60	University of Munich	2	29.7	27.1
61	Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey - New Brunswick	40	29.6	10.8
62	University of Heidelberg	3	29.5	14.3
63	McGill University	3	29.3	32.1
64	The Australian National University	2	29.1	14.3
65	Brown University	41	29	15.3
65	The Ohio State University - Columbus	41	29	13.3
67	University of Oslo	1	28.9	18.8
68	King's College London	7	28.6	13.3
69	University of Geneva	3	28.5	23
70	University of Bristol	8	28.4	7.7
71	Boston University	43	28	12.1
72	University of Florida	44	27.9	18
73	Ecole Normale Superieure - Paris	3	27.6	50
73	Leiden University	2	27.6	18.8
73	University of Helsinki	1	27.6	13.3
73	Uppsala University	2	27.6	18.8
77	University of Arizona	45	27.4	15.3
78	Technion-Israel Institute of Technology	2	26.9	21
79	Arizona State University - Tempe	46	26.6	0
80	Moscow State University	1	26.3	43.7

For more information and ranking of universities visit in this link: http://www.shanghairanking.com