Thomson Reuters has released on Tuesday its latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2012-2013 where six Australian institutions made it to the list of the global top 100.

Australia's educational representatives to the list included the University of Melbourne, Australian National University, the University of Sydney, the University of Queensland, the University of NSW and the Monash University. The last two are newcomers to the list.

On a per country basis, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2012-2013 rated Australia as third best country owing to its universities' improved performance. Topping it was the U.S. and the UK, at first and second places, respectively. The U.S. had 43 universities in the top 100, while the UK had nine.

Of the six Australian universities, it was the University of Melbourne which improved the most, moving to this year's number 39 from last year's number 43 spot. The Australian National University, meantime, notched to number 42 from number 44.

Sydney University, on the other hand, jumped only one place to 49, while the University of Queensland remained in the number 80th spot.

The results of the reputation rankings are based on a global opinion poll that have been held since 2011. More than 16,000 responses from senior published academics in 150 countries are considered in the survey.

Phil Baty, Times Higher Education editor, said Australia has consistently improved its standing at each survey.

"Australia is a country very much on the way up in terms of worldwide academic prestige," Mr Baty said in a statement.

"In many ways these results show that Australia's image among scholars around the world is catching up with the reality: until now it has tended to perform less well in the reputation rankings compared with the overall, objective World University Rankings."

"These results show how well poised Australia is to make the most of its geographical advantages: while it has strong links with the best universities in the West, it has also made the most of East Asia's booming higher education scene. If it continues to exploit these opportunities, Australia could be a serious beneficiary of the Asian century, which is great news for its economy and competitiveness."

This year's Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2012-2013 top universities were Harvard at 1st, MIT at 2nd, Cambridge at 3rd, Oxford at 4th and University of California, Berkeley at 5th.

The University of Tokyo at 9th, meanwhile, is the highest-ranking university outside of the U.S. and UK.