For the fourth time, the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) has published the results of its global university ranking exercise. Again, universities in English-speaking countries dominate the list of the top 200 institutions. As in last year’s THES exercise, and in the recent charts of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (see ACA Newsletter - Education Europe August 2007), Harvard University occupies the top place. Next to six US universities, four UK institutions have made it into the top ten. The UK is also in second place among the top 200 (32), behind the US (57). Small Australia follows on rank three (12), with Japan, Germany and the Netherlands (all 11) all on rank 4. Europe together is still the leading continent, with 86 institutions in the top 200, but, with the exception of UK institutions, European universities do not make it to the very top. The two top-ranked continental European institutions are from France (the Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris in 26th and the Ecole Polytechnique in 28th place), a country otherwise largely absent from the top 200, followed by Switzerland’s ETH on rank 42. Southern Europe is weak again, with Spain and Italy providing only three of the top 200. The share of the Asia-Pacific region of the top 200 is about one fifth, with a majority of Australian and Japanese institutions, and none at all from India. Again, Latin America scores disappointingly (3 in the top 200). The recently much-hailed Gulf region is fully absent, as is Russia. Africa has finally made it into the top 200, with the University of Cape Town on rank 200. The THES ranking has often been criticized for paying attention only to research, and not to education. Despite a slightly changed methodology, the 2007 criteria remain heavily research-focused.  THES