The University of Auckland climbed from 87th to 68th place in the rankings. Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
All eight New Zealand universities have risen in one of the main rankings of international universities.
The University of Auckland climbed from 87th to 68th place in the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings.
The University of Otago was next at 206th place, followed by Massey University at 239th and Victoria University at 241st.
The University of Waikato was ranked 250th, Canterbury 256th, Lincoln 362nd and AUT 407th.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States topped the league table, followed by the UK's University of Cambridge.
The National University of Singapore joined the top 10 for the first time in eighth place, and three Australian universities featured in the top 20 - led by the University of Melbourne at 14th.
The rankings were based on measures including universities' reputation with academics and employers, the ratio of academic staff to students and citations of academics' research.
"The New Zealand higher education system continues to outperform relative to its size," the rankings announcement said.
"The standout performance lies in the newly introduced sustainability indicator. Impressively, the University of Auckland is listed as one of the world's top 10 institutions in this dimension, ranking ninth. The University of Otago and the University of Canterbury also perform strongly in this metric, securing the 22nd and 36th spots respectively."
University of Auckland vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater said the institution's high placing was good for the university, and also for the country.
"A highly ranked, world-class university sends a signal about the quality of teaching, learning and research that's available in our nation. That's important for our students and staff and our research partners, both our national ones and our international ones.
"But it's also important for the country's international reputation. It reflects the quality and capability of our workforce and the global standing of our research but ultimately it shines back on our organisations and on our companies so it achieves many things in terms of lifting all boats."
Freshwater said Auckland was highly ranked for sustainability, its number of international staff and its academic reputation, and had worked strategically to focus on excellence in particular areas.
The outcome was particularly good considering government underfunding of universities, she said.