No New Zealand universities have improved in a global ranking -- and three have fallen

The latest annual Times Higher Education World University rankings show Auckland University has fallen out of the global top 150, down two places to 152.

New Zealand's second highest-ranked university, Otago, has dropped from the lower 300s, to the upper 300s.

Lincoln has also dropped from the 400s to the 500s.

The other five universities have stayed in the same positions -- all in either the four or five hundreds.