Harvard University has educated more current world leaders than any other institution as the US and UK continue to dominate educational ¡°soft power¡±.

A total of 15 of the 66 senior world leaders who studied in the US as of August attended the prestigious institution, which has faced unprecedented attacks from Donald Trump since he re-entered the White House at the start of the year.

The ninth annual Soft Power Index ¨C compiled by the ÌÇÐÄVlog Policy Institute (Hepi) ¨C found the US still tops the ranking,?though it has two fewer leaders than last year.

The UK has closed the gap after its total rose by two to a joint record 59 ¨C thanks?in part to new Canadian prime minister Mark Carney¡¯s degree from the University of Oxford.

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There is an even bigger gap to the rest of the pack after the number of world leaders who attended French universities fell from 40 to 23. It was followed by a record 13 from Russia and a further nine from Australia.

The index, produced alongside Kaplan, includes monarchs, presidents and prime ministers who studied at a higher level in another country.

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Institutions have been ranked separately for the first time, with Harvard¡¯s tally including the leaders of Bhutan, Israel and South Korea.

Oxford was a close second with 12, followed by a number of other British institutions in the top 10, including Sandhurst (eight), the University of Manchester (six), the University of Cambridge (five), the London School of Economics (four), the University of Bristol (three) and UCL (three).

Other universities in the US ¨C Boston, George Washington, New York, Pennsylvania and the US Army Command and Staff College ¨C also educated three each.

With over a quarter of the countries around the world with a very senior leader educated in the UK, Nick Hillman, director of Hepi, said this amounts to ¡°tremendous soft power¡±.

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¡°The current UK government have established a Soft Power Council and promised a new education exports strategy. These are welcome, but they are counterbalanced by the incoming levy on international students, huge dollops of negative rhetoric and excessive visa costs.

¡°Recent new obstacles standing in the way of people wanting to study in Australia, Canada and the United States provide an opportunity for the UK to steal a march on our main competitors. We are at risk of squandering this opportunity.¡±

Since the index was launched in 2017, 81 (42 per cent) countries recognised by the United Nations have had at least one very senior leader educated at a higher level in the UK.

The index shows that Switzerland educated the sixth-largest number of leaders (seven), while India recorded its best-ever performance with five ¨C the same number as Spain and Italy. Germany, Canada, Morocco, the Netherlands and South Africa all educated four.

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Duncan Ivison, the president and vice-chancellor of Manchester, said world leaders retain a ¡°deep affection¡± for where they studied so urged the UK government to remove the ¡°obstacles¡± welcoming future students.

¡°We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make the UK the global destination for the best and the brightest in the world given what is happening elsewhere ¨C and especially in the US and Canada. Let¡¯s not blow it.¡±

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Scholars have previously warned?that the Trump administration¡¯s attempts to block Harvard from enrolling international students will damage the US¡¯ soft power.

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com