5 universities in Hong Kong rank in top 100 in ‘historic’ shift from West to East

Five public universities in Hong Kong have ranked in the top 100 of a renowned British publication’s latest global league table, as part of a trend described as a “historic realignment” of academic prowess from West to East.

The University of Hong Kong remained the city’s highest-ranked tertiary institution, holding onto 33rd place from the previous year, in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, released on Wednesday.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) ranked 42nd, down from 41 a year ago, while the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology maintained its position at 58.

CUHK said it achieved full marks across five core performance metrics – research excellence; patents; research and institutional income; research productivity; and the proportion of international staff – while making notable gains in teaching reputation, student-staff ratio and the proportion of international students.

“These results reflect the university’s sustained strength in teaching quality, research capability and global outlook,” it said.

Meanwhile, City University climbed three spots to 70, its highest position yet, while Polytechnic University advanced one position to 79.

Baptist University ranked 205th, compared with last year’s spot in the 201–250 band.

Lingnan University, which made its debut in the previous rankings, reached 257th in the latest showing, up from its past place in the 301–350 band.

The latest rankings cover a record 2,297 institutions across 118 countries and territories, an increase of 106, respectively, compared with the previous year.

According to THE, the rankings were built on an analysis of about 20 million research papers, around 1 million votes from an academic reputation survey and “detailed institutional data” from more than 3,000 universities worldwide.

The 17 performance metrics were grouped into five categories: teaching; research environment; research quality; industry; and international outlook.

THE noted that the latest rankings reflected a particularly strong showing for Asian institutions.

A record number of universities took part this time, while many top-ranked institutions improved their position, it said.

Asian universities also ranked in the global top 15 for the first time ever.

The continent’s top-performing institution was Beijing’s Tsinghua University, at 11th and up one spot from last year, followed by Peking University at 13th and the National University of Singapore at 15th.

THE described mainland China overall as Asia’s “leading light,” boasting more than 100 universities in the ranking, eight of which were in the top 100.

Phil Baty, THE’s chief global affairs officer, said the latest rankings featured many instances of what he called “symbolic landmarks”, including marking the first time a mainland university was ahead of any institution in continental Europe.

He also said the latest rankings had the lowest number of American institutions in the top 200.

“It is now clear that the tectonic plates of global higher education are shifting permanently,” Baty said. “The latest World University Rankings suggest that we are witnessing a historic realignment of academic power from West to East.”

Despite the broader shift, universities from the United States and the United Kingdom continue to dominate the top 10.

The UK’s Oxford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US held onto first and second positions, respectively, from last year. Princeton University and Stanford University tied for third place.

Rounding out the top 10 were the University of Cambridge, Harvard University, the California Institute of Technology, Imperial College London, the University of California, Berkeley and Yale University.