Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State University earned prominent spots in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, though the annual list released Wednesday points to continued erosion of America’s lead among global institutions.

Carnegie Mellon ranked 22nd, up from 24th a year ago, and the University of Pittsburgh, which lost ground last year, saw its ranking improve from a tie for 91st with the University of Massachusetts to 79th in the newest ranking. Penn State University was ranked 75th in the new ranking, down from 58th a year ago.

The London-based rankings use 13 performance indicators measuring aspects of campus mission in teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook, organizers said.

California Institute of Technology is ranked No. 1, Stanford University is third, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is fifth and Harvard University sixth. Indeed, the U.S., with 147 of the top 800 schools, had the most in the rankings. But the number of U.S. universities in the top 200 declined from 74 to 63 this year.

First Published: October 1, 2015, 4:00 a.m.