The University of Oxford ranked first in an influential survey of the world's top universities released Thursday, becoming the first university outside the United States to take top spot, with the California Institute of Technology in second place and Stanford University third.

The University of Tokyo ranked 39th in this year's Times Higher Education list of the world's top 980 institutions, the fourth-best institution of higher learning in Asia. The National University of Singapore took the Asian crown in 24th place.

The University of Tokyo, which was regularly at the top of Asian institutions, was again outranked by Peking University, which crept up the league table this year to 29th place. This year, the Japanese university also came behind Tsinghua University in China, which moved up to 35th place.