u/Minute_Catch_3210

Whenever there is a reference (both online and in real life) to the “most prestigious university in the world” or the “most famous university in the world”, the university being named will always be either Harvard or Oxford.

I failed to find a single instance where Cambridge is named.

This just confuses me because Oxford and Cambridge are always depicted as equals in their prestige, but if this is true then why is Oxford always the one that gets singled out as the top?

Internationally Oxford is a much better known uni than Cambridge and I was wondering why this was the case. From my experience in Asia and Africa, the top two in the world are Harvard/Oxford (maybe slight edge to Harvard due to American dominance) with Cambridge a distant third.

Is there a clear reason why brand strength favours Oxford over Cambridge?