Asia University Rankings 2023 released by Times Higher Education

• Mainland China takes the top two positions for the fourth consecutive year
• University from Singapore takes third position for the fourth consecutive year
• Japan is the most represented country with 117 universities
• Thailand and Indonesia each have 18 universities in the rankings – more than last year
• India has one university in the top 50, four in the top 100 and 18 universities in the top 200
• 669 universities are ranked, up from 616 last year
• Thirty-one countries/regions are represented from Turkey in the west to Japan in the east
• This is the 11th edition of THE’s Asia University Rankings.  

Tsinghua University in China has topped Times Higher Education’s (THE) Asia University Rankings 2023. The Beijing based institution has retained its top spot for the fourth year in a row. In second place is another Chinese institution, Peking University, which is second for the fourth year in a row too. Taking third place is National University of Singapore, which has also maintained its position for the fourth consecutive year.  

Top 10 universities in THE’s Asia University Rankings  

This is the 11th edition of THE’s Asia University Rankings, and this year 669 universities are ranked, up from 616 last year. Thirty-one countries/regions are represented from Turkey in the west to Japan in the east. 

This year is showing Asia’s growing influence on the spread of knowledge and ideas across the world, as measured by research publication citations. 

Over the past five years, countries in the region have significantly improved their average citation score, which measures research influence by capturing the average number of times a university’s published work is cited by scholars globally.  

Citation scores on the continent are growing at a faster pace than the rest of the world (based on countries with at least five universities continuously ranked since 2019).  

Three Asian countries currently have a higher score than the world average: Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and mainland China. Other nations, such as Pakistan, still rank below the world average but have seen a boost over recent years.  

The region tends towards science and social science subjects. The business and economics research coming out of the region is particularly highly cited, as is work on computer science and engineering. 

Most universities included in the rankings come from Japan (117), followed by mainland China (95), India (75), Iran (65) and Turkey (61). 

Top 10 countries with the most represented universities, including their highest ranked institution

There is also a general trend towards increased internationalisation which looks at a university's international-to-domestic-student ratio and staff ratio and international research collaboration. Japan has seen a rise in internationalisation – its score has increased from 27.6 in 2022 to 28.6 this year. 

Pakistan has seen a rise in its internationalisation score over the past year, rising from 43.0 to 44.8. This is driven predominantly by an increase in international research collaboration, which rose from an average score of 82.5 to 87.0.  

Mainland China’s average score for international students dropped, which is likely to be partly because of the country’s strong Covid-19 border policies as the data in the rankings is 2019-20.  

Hong Kong has long been home to some of the most international universities in the region, while that continues to be the case, the average score of Hong Kong universities has dipped slightly from last year’s 97.8 to 97.3. Hong Kong has, however, witnessed a surge in mainland Chinese students: data from the University Grants Committee in Hong Kong recorded a nine per cent increase year-on-year in students from the mainland in 2021-22. 

Macao, too, has seen a slight decline in its internationalisation score, but cross-border efforts between mainland China and its special administrative regions has been ramping up since 2018.  

Phil Baty, Times Higher Education’s Chief Global Affairs Officer, said: 

“THE’s Asia University Rankings shines a bright light on higher education in a very diverse continent and shows Asian universities are some of the world’s most innovative and dynamic for research and innovation. It also shows their growing influence on the spread of knowledge and ideas across the globe.   

“This is especially impressive when looking at the change that has taken place in Asia in the 11 years THE has been running this ranking. This gives rise to real optimism that Asia’s extraordinary rise will continue long into the future.”  

THE’s Asia University Rankings use the same 13 calibrated performance indicators THE uses for its World University Rankings with its weightings specially recalibrated to reflect the priorities of Asian institutions. 

View the full Asia University Rankings 2023 results and see the full Asia University Rankings 2023 methodology. Please use the following hashtags on social media: #THEAsia #THEUniRankings #AsiaUniRankings  

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