Harvard University has lost its top spot in the QS World University Rankings, ceding the pole position, to the University of Cambridge, for the first time since 2004. Despite Harvard’s slip to No. 2, the 2010 rankings remain dominated by American institutions, with 53 of the top 200 universities located in the United States. This year marks the first time that Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd. is producing the rankings, which are among the most widely watched in the world, without the collaboration of Times Higher Education, with which it severed ties last year. Instead, Times Higher Education will be producing its own compilation in partnership with the media company Thompson Reuters, due for release next week. Meanwhile, QS has teamed up with U.S. News & World Report, which will be publishing a full list of the top 400 universities on September 21. The World University Rankings have been criticized in the past for their heavy reliance on a peer-review component, with fewer than 4,000 responses to last year’s survey of academics, but this year’s results were based on responses from more than 15,000 academics. According to the QS press release, “this includes over 500 university leaders.”