The Netherlands again has more universities in the latest Times Higher Education top 100 world university rankings than any other country apart from the US and Britain.

Last year there were seven of the 13 Dutch universities in the top 100 and this year eight, thanks to the addtion of Maastricht. All 13 feature in the top 250.

Leiden is the top-rated Dutch university in 67th place, down from 64th last year. Delft University of Technology is the second-rated Dutch institution in 69th place.

Karl Dittrich, chairman of the Dutch university association VSNU, told the Volkskrant it would be unrealistic for the Netherlands to strive for a top 10 place.

‘If you want to be like Harvard, you would have to take the best departments from each individual university and combine them into one institute,’ he said. ‘And then you need the money. Harvard’s assets, for example, are bigger than all the Dutch universities put together.’

The California Institute of Technology heads the list with Harvard and Oxford in joint second place.