Harvard University leads the 2013 Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings with an overall score of 100. This list is of the top 100 most powerful global university brands.

Leading 16,300 senior and published academics in 144 countries were part of an email survey conducted by Thomson Reuters last year to decide the rankings.

Harvard, claiming the top spot doesn't come as a surprise to many as it is credited with providing access to the best education world-wide.

This survey has 43 U.S. universities, which continue to dominate world rankings along with U.K.'s nine universities.

Meanwhile, six Australian universities, five Japanese, Dutch and German universities each, four French and Swedish universities and three Hong Kong colleges also feature in the list.

"This ranking is based purely on subjective judgement, but it is the expert judgement of those who know excellence in teaching and research better than anyone else," Phil Baty, editor of Times Higher Education rankings, told The Coversation.

After Harvard, the list features Massachusetts Institute of Technology (87.6), the University of Cambridge (81.3), the University of Oxford (73), the University of California, Berkeley (72.4) and Stanford University (70.6).

These top six universities have taken the same spot in the last two surveys, since World Reputation Rankings began in 2011.

Dr Andrew Norton, director of the Higher Education at the Grattan Institute, told the newspaper that some international students do refer to university rankings when choosing universities.

On the other hand, two of the three Canadian universities; University of British Columbia and McGill University, fell to 31st place tie this year when compared to their 25th rank tie last year. However, the University of Toronto maintained its 16th position in the list.

This ranking has presented students one more reason to pursue their education at Harvard University.

Recently, this prestigious university topped the list of the highest number of wealthiest billionaire alumni, 29, with a total fortune of $205 billion.