Times Higher Education ranks world universities annually. For the first time in 14 years, an American college didn't crack the top two in a ranking of the best universities in the world, according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2018 list. This year, Harvard was dethroned from the top spot. Oxford University and Cambridge University came in first and second.
Times Higher Ed reviews the top 1,000 universities in the world looking at factors of teaching, research, and influence to rank them. It reviews quantitative factors, like the number of times a university's published work is cited by scholars globally, and qualitative factors, like peer surveys, to assemble the ranking.
Read Business Insider's summary of the top 10 universities in the world: https://amp.businessinsider.com/world-university-rankings-2017-12