Phil Baty: Power Shift From West To East In THE World Uni Rankings

Leading Asian universities are steadily catching up with their UK and US counterparts, says Phil Baty, rankings editor of Times Higher Education.

AsianScientist (Oct. 3, 2013) – For the third year in a row, the California Institute of Technology has been ranked the world’s number one university in the Times Higher Education global ranking of the top 200 universities, released on Wednesday.

Harvard University, Oxford University, Stanford University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology round out the top five schools in the 2013–2014 rankings.

But leading Asian universities are steadily catching up with their UK and US counterparts, continuing a “power shift from West to East,” said Phil Baty, editor-at-large and rankings editor, Times Higher Education.

The top players in China, South Korea, Japan and Singapore have all risen up the top 200 list, and Japan or South Korea are home to five and four leading universities, respectively.

“More Asian institutions are nipping at the heels of the best in the West, increasingly occupying world top 50 places and showing no signs of letting up,” he said.

This year, mainland Europe suffered the worst losses, while the same institutions make up the top 10 as last year. But Asia now boasts six top 50 institutions, up from five last year.

Japan, the higher education stalwart of Asia, retained top spot with the University of Tokyo climbing four places to 23rd.

The National University of Singapore rose from 29th place last year to 26th place, displacing Australia’s University of Melbourne and making it the second strongest university in the Asia-Pacific region. Nanyang Technological University moved up ten places to 76th, primarily due to improvements to its research citation score, as measured by Thomson Reuters.

“Bold efforts by the Singapore government at developing the country as a global knowledge and innovation hub have led to an exciting and thriving higher education and research landscape,” said Tan Chorh Chuan, president of the National University of Singapore.

The University of Hong Kong, on the other hand, slipped eight places to 43rd, leaving it in third place in the region. Nonetheless, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (joint 65th to 57th) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (joint 124th to joint 109th) have both gained ground.

By contrast, mainland China still has only two top 200 universities, but Peking University rose up one place to 45th, while Tsinghua University rose two places to joint 50th.

Seoul National University leaped 15 places to 44th place, while the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) surged to 56th place. Previously the top-ranking university in South Korea, Pohang University of Science and Technology slipped from 50th to 60th place.

The rankings, which are compiled using data from Thomson Reuters, take into account 13 performance indicators representing research (worth 30 percent of a school’s overall ranking score), teaching (30 percent), citations (30 percent), international outlook (which includes the total numbers of international students and faculty and the ratio of scholarly papers with international collaborators, 7.5 percent), and industry income (a measure of innovation, 2.5 percent).

Top 200 Asian universities in the THE World University Rankings 2013-2014:
Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2013-2014 asia region

The full rankings can be found at: Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2013-2014.

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