Asia University Rankings 2024 released by Times Higher Education

Excellence in South-East Asian universities’ research sees them rise in Times Higher Education’s Asia University Rankings 2024 

• South-East Asian countries, in particular Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand excel in 12th edition of Asia University Rankings 
• Two Indonesia universities jump up a band 
• Turkey has 75 universities ranked up from 61 last year 
• Mainland China takes five of top 10 positions including first and second 
• 739 universities are ranked – 70 more than last year, from 31 countries/regions 

Tsinghua University in China tops Times Higher Education’s (THE) Asia University Rankings 2024 retaining its number one spot for the sixth year in a row. In second place is Chinese institution, Peking University, which is second for the fifth year in a row. Taking third place is National University of Singapore, which has also maintained its position for the fifth consecutive year. China’s representation in the top 10 has increased to five, up from four last year. 

That comes at the expense of Hong Kong universities, which now has two institutions in the top 10, compared with three last year.  

Japan’s position is stronger than had been previously appreciated with all universities showing significantly higher scores in this year’s research quality pillar due to the addition of the new research influence metric. Institutions such as the University of Tokyo moved from 8th last year to 5th and Kyoto University from 18th last year to 13th.  

Singapore has two universities in the ranking: National University of Singapore, which is third and Nanyang Technological University, which moved up one place from 5th to 4th this year. 

Top 10 universities in THE’s Asia University Rankings 2024 

If you reproduce any part of the tables or graph in this release please credit: Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2024

Seventeen of Thailand’s 19 universities either moved up or maintained their position in this year’s ranking. The country’s top three, and stand out, institutions are: Chulalongkorn University, which is ranked 117 up from 201–250 last year, Mahidol University ranked 139 up from 201–250 last year and King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi ranked 192 up from 201–250 last year. 

While most of Indonesia’s 24 universities maintained their position in the ranking there are two notable exceptions: University of Indonesia jumped up from 251–300 last year to 201–250 this year and Universitas Gadjah Mada shot up from 401–500 last year to 351–400 this year.  

Some countries have seen a decline in their overall ranking performance, despite improving in the new metrics, reflecting the fierce competition in the continent. 

Seventy more universities are ranked this year than last, up from 669 to 739 this year, marking a 10.5% increase, from 31 countries/regions, while a further 388 are listed as having reporter status*. Many of the newly ranked institutions are in west or south Asia, which is something to look out for in the future. 

Phil Baty, Times Higher Education’s chief global affairs officer, said: “We have tracked the impressive rise of China in the global rankings for two decades now, but what we can clearly see now is that the rising tide in Asia is lifting all boats.  

“While China’s leading universities now compete at the very top of the world rankings, our data shows a strengthening across Asia, where a healthy competition, more collaboration, more investment in research and university capacity and more internationalisation is driving up performance. It all amounts to hugely positive tectonic shifts in higher education from the West to the East, with real excellence demonstrated in East Asia and South East Asia in particular and well beyond. 

“Another significant highlight is the growth of other regional powerhouses including India, Japan and increasingly Thailand, all of which show a continuous improvement in Asian countries’ higher education systems, which must be seen against the backdrop of an increasingly highly competitive higher education environment in the region.” 

This is the 12th edition of THE’s the Asia University Rankings with Japan having the most universities in the rankings with 119. This is followed by India with 91, up from 75 last year, with the country’s highest-ranked institution being the Indian Institute of Science at 32nd place, up from 48th. Mainland China has 86 universities. Turkey has 75 universities, up from 61 last year. The top two – Koç University and Middle East Technical University – share 69th place, and Istanbul Technical University rises from joint 149th to 92nd. Iran is the fifth most represented country with 73 universities. 

The methodology behind the Asia University Rankings is based on the same framework as the World University Rankings but the weightings are specially recalibrated to reflect the priorities of Asian institutions. See the Asia University Rankings 2024 methodology. THE revised and improved its methodology for its World University Rankings 2024 adding new metrics relating to research quality and patents. The methodological change has highlighted performances from universities in research that were not previously completely visible.  

The addition of the new patent metric (part of the industry pillar) allows the transfer of knowledge from academia to industry to be measured. Nineteen Asian universities score 100 in this metric and of those four institutions each come from: Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea. 

*Reporter status means, although they submitted data, they did not meet THE’s eligibility criteria to receive a ranked position.