Times Higher Education 2015 Top 100 Asia University Rankings Undergraduate - More about university rankings

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China has overtaken Japan as Asia’s number one nation for producing top universities.

While Japan’s University of Tokyo is the highest-placed institution in the Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2015, the country has lost ground overall, with the balance of power now tilting towards mainland China.

Japan has 19 universities in the prestigious top 100, down from 20 last year and 22 in 2013, and 15 of those have slipped down the list, by an average of 5.8 places.

By contrast, mainland China now has 21 representatives, up from 18 last year and 15 in 2013, and many of these are rising up the table, including Peking University (fourth) and Tsinghua University (fifth), which have both moved up a place. Wuhan University has also climbed an impressive 15 places to joint 49th.

China’s special administrative regions are also performing well, with all six of Hong Kong’s ranked universities in the top 50, while Macau has made its debut in the table with the University of Macau entering in joint 40th place.

The shift in power towards China takes place against a backdrop of investment in research and development while Japan wrestles with cuts as a result of its crippling level of public debt.

Gerard Postiglione, director of the Wah Ching Centre of Research on Education in China at the University of Hong Kong, said that Japan’s declining performance is due to a combination of “a lot of inbreeding” at its universities (graduates teaching at the same university at which they studied); research funding being concentrated at its top-tier institutions; and fewer promotion opportunities for young academics.

“[China] started from scratch and rose quickly from the 1990s when they didn’t have world-class universities, whereas Japan was already at a pretty high level, so its productivity has levelled off for a few years,” he said.

Simon Marginson, professor of international higher education at the UCL Institute of Education, agreed that higher education in Japan is “now largely standing still”.

“Japan is careful to maintain the leading edge of its very top universities such as Tokyo and Kyoto, but has been less committed than has China to pumping more investment into the universities on the next level,” he said.

Phil Baty, THE Rankings editor, added: “Now is not the time for [Japan] to rest on existing reputation – it must act, and quickly, if it is to arrest its decline.”

Taiwan’s performance is continuing to decline – six universities have fallen out of the top 100 since the rankings’ first year in 2013 – while India’s progress has faltered, with the majority of its institutions losing ground.

Country  Number of Institutions in Top 100
China 21
Japan 19
South Korea 13
Taiwan 11
India 9
Hong Kong 6
Turkey 6
Israel 4
Iran 3
Singapore 2
Saudi Arabia 2
Thailand 2
Lebanon 1
Macau 1

Asia University Rankings 2015 Top 100 

Rank University Location
1 The University of Tokyo     Japan
2 National University of Singapore (NUS) Singapore
3 The University of Hong Kong  Hong Kong
4 Peking University  China
5 Tsinghua University  China
6 Seoul National University  South Korea
7 Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong
8 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) South Korea
9 Kyoto University  Japan
10 Nanyang Technological University Singapore
11 Pohang University of Science and Technology (Postech) South Korea
12 Middle East Technical University  Turkey
13 Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
14 Boğaziçi University Turkey
15 Tokyo Institute of Technology Japan
16 Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) South Korea
17 National Taiwan University Taiwan
18 Osaka University Japan
19 Istanbul Technical University
Turkey
19 Tohoku University
Japan
21 Sabanci University
Turkey
22 Tel Aviv University Israel
23 City University of Hong Kong  Hong Kong
24 Fudan University   China
25 Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel
26 Korea University South Korea
26 University of Science and Technology of China China
28 Yonsei University South Korea
29 The Hong Kong Polytechnic University  Hong Kong
30 Bilkent University  Turkey
31 Technion Israel Institute of Technology Israel
32 Nagoya University Japan
33 Tokyo Metropolitan University Japan
34 National Tsing Hua University Taiwan
35 Nanjing University Nanjing
36 National Chiao Tung University Taiwan
37 Indian Institute of Science India
38 Panjab University India
39 Shanghai Jiao Tong University  China
40 Tokyo Medical and Dental University  Japan
40 University of Macau Macau
42 Sun Yat-sen University China
43 Sharif University of Technology Iran
44 Renmin University of China China
45 Hong Kong Baptist University  Hong Kong
46 Zhejiang University  China
47 Koç University   Turkey
48 University of Tsukuba Japan
49 National Cheng Kung University  Taiwan
49 University of Seoul South Korea
49 Wuhan University China
52 National Taiwan University of Science and Technology Taiwan
53 Ewha Womans University South korea
54 Hanyang University  South korea
55 Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee   India
55 King Mongkut's University of Technology, Thonburi Thailand
57 India Institute of Technology, Bombay   India
58 Kyushu University   Japan
59 Waseda University Japan
60 Wuhan University of Technology China
61 Isfahan University of Technology  Iran
62 National Sun Yat-Sen University Taiwan
63 Hokkaido University Japan
64 National Central University Taiwan
65 India Institute of Technology, Delhi India
66 Harbin Institute of Technology China
67 China Medical University of Taiwan Taiwan
67 Kyung Hee University South Korea
69 Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur India
69 Iran University of Science and Technology Iran
71 King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals Saudi Arabia
72 King Saud University Saudi Arabia
73 Keio University Japan
73 National Taiwan Normal University Taiwan
75 Bar-Ilan University Israel
75 Juntendo University Japan
75 Tianjin University China
78 Hiroshima University Japan
79 Indian Institute of Technology, Madras India
80 East China Normal University China
81 Kobe University Japan
82 Dalian University of Technology China
83 Hunan University China
84 South China University of Technology China
85 East China University of Science and Technology China
85 University of Ulsan South Korea
87 Tongji University China
88 American University of Beirut Lebanon
88 Okayama University Japan
90 Aligarh Muslim University  India
91 Mahidol University Thailand
91 Osaka City University Japan
93 Asia University, Taiwan Taiwan
94 Huazhong University of Science and Technology China
95 Xi'an Jiaotong University China
96 Jawaharlal Nehru University India
97 Chung-Ang University South Korea
98 National Yang-Ming University Taiwan
99 Chiba University Japan
100 Pusan National University South Korea

Source - Times Higher Education

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