Harvard University came first on a list of the top 100 universities by reputation, released Thursday by Times Higher Education (THE), a weekly magazine based in London.

The survey, the second of its kind, received a record sample of 17,554 detailed responses from individual academics from 149 countries, up 31 percent on last year.

Georgraphically, the United States has 44 unversities on the annual list, followed by 10 in the United Kingdom and 6 in China.

Of the six unverisities from China (2 from the mainland, 3 from Hong Kong and 1 from Taiwan), Tsinghua University was the highest ranking, 30th on the list, moving up from 38 in the previous year.

In a competitive higher education market, a strong global reputation provides tangible, real-world benefits - helping institutions attract and retain the best faculty, helping faculty locate the best universities for partnerships, and helping students in their quest to identify those elite universities whose names carry serious weight in the jobs market, said Times Higher Education.

Following are the top 30 universities on THE ranking.

   Tsinghua University (Beijing, China)

Tsinghua University [nipic.com]

World rank: 71

Reputation rank: 30

Overall Reputation score: 10.9

Reputation for teaching: 11.7

Reputation for research: 10.5

Originally founded in 1911 as Tsinghua College, Tsinghua University is today widely recognized as one of the top two universities in China. By the late 1920s, the university had already distinguished itself in terms of academic excellence and talent cultivation capabilities. Its professors are highly esteemed: 36 are members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and 32 belong to the Academy of Engineering. Of its 28,000 students, 2,400 hail from overseas.