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The best universities in the UK are going head-to-head with rivals in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2015-16.

Many UK institutions in the top 100 are ranked just one or two positions away from those in mainland Europe that offer study opportunities at a fraction of the cost.

China, Japan and Switzerland are tied as the third most represented countries in the top 20 universities for teaching, with one university each.

The top 20 is dominated by US institutions, which take 13 spots. The UK trails behind with only four universities with top-20 teaching scores, and Australia’s institutions fail to make the cut.

Many of the best universities in the world remained off-limits for women until the last century.

Nonetheless, 46 women have won Nobel prizes since then, and women are now running some of the most prestigious institutions, including Imperial College London.

Despite regrettably low numbers of women studying science, engineering and other subjects, many universities are well on their way to achieving parity in the numbers of male and female students.

The world’s best universities have been revealed with the release of the 2015-16 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, which feature more institutions and countries than ever before.

For the fifth year running, the Harvard University’s reign in 2011-12.

The UK is putting pressure on the US in the highest ranks, with the Stanford University in third.

Choosing a college in the US, with myriad subjects, funding schemes and course costs, has always been a minefield for prospective students and their parents. Now President Obama’s administration has released a new College Scorecard, saying teenagers will have “reliable data on every institution of higher education”, although his long-mooted plans for a college rating system have now been scrapped.

The University of Oxford has named its first female vice-chancellor in its 900-year-plus history, but in January Louise Richardson will join only a small number of female leaders.

University courses are traditionally accused of favouring “male, stale and pale” in the texts they choose. But radical changes in the past few decades mean that universities are now spaces where diversity is celebrated – even if it still remains more difficult for black and ethnic minority students to get into top universities.

Rank yourself as one of the great minds of your generation? Stanford might be the university of choice for you, after it topped a list of institutions with the most Nobel prizewinners this century.

A trip to the US might be in order because the country is home to the top eight institutions on the list, which collates prizewinners since 2000. A total of 71 Nobel prizes – nearly half the 146 awarded – have gone to staff or students affiliated with universities in the States.

The capital’s universities top the rankings of graduates in employment or further study 12 months after leaving university, with the usual suspects not far behind.

Imperial College London in second place with 91.1 per cent.

Northern Ireland’s capital, home to Ulster University’s Belfast campus, boasts a buzzing nightlife and high-quality attractions such as Titanic Belfast, while its low rental prices make it the cheapest city in which to study in the UK.

The average rent in Belfast is £46 a week, compared with £105 in London and £112 in Oxford, while grocery shopping is cheapest there, too – the average spend is £16.13 in the city, compared with a whopping £29.35 in Dundee.