NEWCASTLE University is one of three in the UK to lose their place in the top 200 global higher education league table.

The Tyneside university slipped from 200 to 202 in the Times Higher Education (THE) World Rankings for 2014-15. The other UK universities to drop out of the top 200 were Reading and Dundee.

Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London remained in the top 10 while the top spot globally went to the California Institute of Technology in the United States.

Asian universities are continuing to rise in the world ratings with 24 Asian universities now in the world top 200, up from 20 last year.

In the North-East, Durham University was ranked at 83rd, three down on the previous year, while

York University also slipped from 100th to 113th.

A Newcastle University spokeswoman said: “Newcastle University has done well in many of the other rankings and league tables released this year. Indeed, our position in the QS world ranking published last month puts us in the top 1 per cent of global universities.

“In the last academic year we also enjoyed our best year ever in terms of the intake of students, our levels of research income at over £120m and the highest levels of student satisfaction. We also saw 94 per cent of our graduates in work or further education within six months of leaving Newcastle.

“It is of course disappointing to drop down to 202 in the Times Higher rankings, but, in the case of THE there does seem to be a sector-wide effect with many more UK universities losing ground to Asia Pacific institutions. This may be as a result of the methodology, or the simple fact that other universities have improved at a faster pace than the UK as a result of increased Government investment.”