Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are top of a global league table of university reputation - in a top 100 dominated by US institutions.
Cambridge and Oxford make the top 10 - but other UK universities have slipped, while Asian institutions have risen.
The rankings are based on the perceptions of 17,000 academics.
This list is an attempt to quantify the elusive but important quality of "reputation" in higher education - with its findings based on the opinions of academics around the world.
The first such ranking by the Times Higher Education magazine, published last year, had the same top five as this year - with the two Boston-based institutions, Harvard and MIT, in first and second place.
Cambridge was once again the highest ranking UK university in third place, followed by Stanford and University of California, Berkeley.
But Phil Baty, editor of the Times Higher Education rankings, says there is an underlying picture of UK universities heading downwards - with fewer in the top 100 and a decline for others including Imperial College London and University College London.
"Our global reputation as the home of outstanding universities has been hit," he said.
Reflecting the rise of Asian countries as the new education superpowers, there is an increasing presence for countries such as China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
Switzerland is also seen as performing well, relative to its population, with three universities in the top 100.
Such rankings do not have an official status, but they have become an increasingly significant part of how universities market themselves to students, particularly as higher education has become more globalised.
This latest league table reinforces the emergence of "global superbrands", headed by institutions such as Stanford on the US West Coast and Harvard on the East Coast, and Oxford and Cambridge in the UK.