For the Top 50 World Universities 2008 look here at the excerpt from the Centre for World-Class Universities list. This is not an official document or a page for the original source with complete 500 ranking list and specifications and much more go to: 
Academic Ranking of World Universities - 2008

There you can find: 

1. Top 100 World Universities Top  100 and more

2. Top 100 North & Latin American Universities

3. Top 100 European Universities

4. Top 100 Asia Pacific Universities 

The ranking is based on number of Nobel prizes, highly cited scientists, articles published in Nature & Science, citation indexes and performance per faculty. Utrecht University is proud to be a leading university in Europe. 

* Institutions within the same rank range are listed alphabetically.
World Rank	Institution*	Region	Regional Rank	Country	National Rank	Score on Alumni	Score on Award	Score on HiCi	Score on N&S	Score on PUB	Score on PCP	Total Score
1	Harvard Univ	Americas	1	USA	1	100	100	100	100	100	74.1	100
2	Stanford Univ	Americas	2	USA	2	40	78.7	86.6	68.9	71.6	66.9	73.7
3	Univ California - Berkeley	Americas	3	USA	3	69	77.1	68.8	70.6	70	53	71.4
4	Univ Cambridge	Europe	1	UK	1	90.3	91.5	53.6	56	64.1	65	70.4
5	Massachusetts Inst Tech (MIT)	Americas	4	USA	4	71	80.6	65.6	68.7	61.6	53.9	69.6
6	California Inst Tech	Americas	5	USA	5	52.8	69.1	57.4	66.1	49.7	100	65.4
7	Columbia Univ	Americas	6	USA	6	72.4	65.7	56.5	52.3	70.5	46.6	62.5
8	Princeton Univ	Americas	7	USA	7	59.3	80.4	61.9	40.5	44.8	59.3	58.9
9	Univ Chicago	Americas	8	USA	8	67.4	81.9	50.5	39.5	51.9	41.3	57.1
10	Univ Oxford	Europe	2	UK	2	59	57.9	48.4	52	66	45.7	56.8
11	Yale Univ	Americas	9	USA	9	48.5	43.6	57	55.7	62.4	48.7	54.9
12	Cornell Univ	Americas	10	USA	10	41.5	51.3	54.1	52.3	64.7	40.4	54.1
13	Univ California - Los Angeles	Americas	11	USA	11	24.4	42.8	57.4	48.9	75.7	36	52.4
14	Univ California - San Diego	Americas	12	USA	12	15.8	34	59.7	53	66.7	47.4	50.3
15	Univ Pennsylvania	Americas	13	USA	13	31.7	34.4	58.3	41.3	69	39.2	49.0
16	Univ Washington - Seattle	Americas	14	USA	14	25.7	31.8	53.1	49.5	74.1	28	48.3
17	Univ Wisconsin - Madison	Americas	15	USA	15	38.4	35.5	52.6	41.2	68.1	28.8	47.4
18	Univ California - San Francisco	Americas	16	USA	16	0	36.8	54.1	51.5	60.8	47.5	46.6
19	Tokyo Univ	Asia/Pac	1	Japan	1	32.2	14.1	43.1	51.9	83.3	35	46.4
20	Johns Hopkins Univ	Americas	17	USA	17	45.8	27.8	41.3	48.7	68.5	24.8	45.5
21	Univ Michigan - Ann Arbor	Americas	18	USA	18	38.4	0	60.6	41.7	78.1	31.4	44.2
22	Univ Coll London	Europe	3	UK	3	31.2	32.2	38.6	44.3	65.8	35.4	44.0
23	Kyoto Univ	Asia/Pac	2	Japan	2	35.4	33.4	38.6	35.8	70.6	31.5	43.5
24	Swiss Fed Inst Tech - Zurich	Europe	4	Switzerland	1	35.9	36.3	36.1	38.1	53.6	56	43.1
24	Univ Toronto	Americas	19	Canada	1	25	19.3	38.6	37	79.8	45.8	43.1
26	Univ Illinois - Urbana Champaign	Americas	20	USA	19	37.1	36.6	43.8	36.1	60.3	26.9	42.9
27	Imperial Coll London	Europe	5	UK	4	18.6	37.4	39.9	38.2	61.8	39.4	42.4
28	Univ Minnesota - Twin Cities	Americas	21	USA	20	32.2	16.3	50	34.8	67.5	24.4	40.4
29	Washington Univ - St. Louis	Americas	22	USA	21	22.4	26	38.6	43.2	56	40.5	40.1
30	Northwestern Univ	Americas	23	USA	22	19.4	18.9	46.7	32.8	58.7	37.7	38.1
31	New York Univ	Americas	24	USA	23	34.1	24.5	39.9	34.4	53.4	25.9	37.4
32	Duke Univ	Americas	25	USA	24	18.6	0	46.1	42.6	63.4	39.8	37.2
32	Rockefeller Univ	Americas	25	USA	24	20.2	58.6	29.2	42.2	22.3	37.9	37.2
34	Univ Colorado - Boulder	Americas	27	USA	26	14.8	30.8	39.3	39.4	45.5	30.4	36.4
35	Univ British Columbia	Americas	28	Canada	2	18.6	18.9	31.8	31.9	65.8	38.2	36.3
36	Univ California - Santa Barbara	Americas	29	USA	27	0	35.3	41.9	34.9	43.2	35.4	35.5
37	Univ Maryland - Coll Park	Americas	30	USA	28	23.1	20	40.6	30.4	53.1	26.1	34.6
38	Univ North Carolina - Chapel Hill	Americas	31	USA	29	11.2	16.3	37.9	28.8	62	29.1	33.9
39	Univ Texas - Austin	Americas	32	USA	30	19.4	16.7	46.1	26.7	54.2	21.3	33.7
40	Univ Manchester	Europe	6	UK	5	24.4	18.9	28.2	28.3	60.5	30.4	33.6
41	Univ Texas Southwestern Med Center	Americas	33	USA	31	21.7	33.2	30.9	31.7	39.3	32.1	33.3
42	Pennsylvania State Univ - Univ Park	Americas	34	USA	32	12.5	0	45.5	38.5	58.9	24.4	33.1
42	Univ Paris 06	Europe	7	France	1	36.6	23.6	23.1	27.3	58.2	21.3	33.1
42	Vanderbilt Univ	Americas	34	USA	32	18.6	29.6	30.9	23.1	50.3	36	33.1
45	Univ Copenhagen	Europe	8	Denmark	1	27.4	24.2	26.3	25.4	54.5	33.4	33.0
46	Univ California - Irvine	Americas	36	USA	34	0	29.4	37.2	27.5	49.3	32.9	32.8
47	Univ Utrecht	Europe	9	Netherlands	1	27.4	20.9	28.2	28.8	53.3	26	32.4
48	Univ California - Davis	Americas	37	USA	35	0	0	46.7	31.7	63.2	30	32.2
49	Univ Paris 11	Europe	10	France	2	33.3	46.2	14.6	20.4	47	23.1	32.1
50	Univ Southern California	Americas	38	USA	36	0	26.8	38.6	24.7	52.6	26.7	32.0