Cream of the crop: The Asian universities among QSWUR2020’s top 50

20 Jun 2019

There’s no denying Asia’s growing prowess in the education realm, and the latest QS World University Rankings 2020 is a testament to the academic reputation of universities in the region.

This means international students looking to obtain a quality education may want to look East for their study abroad options, not merely those located in Europe, the UK or US.

A total of 12 Asian universities are in the top 50, with the highest ranking Asian universities hailing from Singapore. Just missing out on the top 10 are Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the National University of Singapore (NUS), both tied at 11th place.

.@NTUsg is now placed 11th in the @worlduniranking. This shows the university’s investment and efforts in education, research and innovation are being recognised, and that NTU continues to be highly regarded by academics and employers worldwide. #QSWUR https://t.co/CdwfzwkimE pic.twitter.com/9xjb84eDSx

— NTU Singapore (@NTUsg) June 19, 2019

Both universities are consistently ranked among Asia’s finest institutions but have not successfully broken into the top 10 these past few years.

Meanwhile, China’s Tsinghua University is ranked 16th, up one spot from last year, while tied in the 22nd spot is China’s Peking University and Japan’s University of Tokyo.

Tied in 25th place is the University of Hong Kong (with US’ Duke University) while in 32nd place is The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Kyoto University in Japan is tied in 33rd place (with King’s College London in the UK) while South Korea’s top institution, Seoul National University, is ranked 37th.

The other Asian universities in the top 50 include China’s Fudan University (40), South Korea’s Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, or KAIST (41) and The Chinese University of Hong Kong (46).

Asian universities in the top 50

2019 rank	2018 rank	University	Country
=11	12	Nanyang Technological University (NTU)	Singapore
=11	11	National University of Singapore (NUS)	Singapore
16	17	Tsinghua University	China
=22	30	Peking University	China
=22	23	University of Tokyo	Japan
=25	25	The University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
32	37	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong
=33	35	Kyoto University	Japan
37	36	Seoul National University	South Korea
40	44	Fudan University	China
41	40	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)	South Korea
46	49	The Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong

Source: QS World University Rankings 2020

Among the Asian countries with the most represented universities in the rankings sits China, with a total of 42 institutions compared to 40 last year. Meanwhile, Japan has 41 institutions featured in this year’s rankings, down by three from last year.

QS’s 2020 rankings feature 1,000 universities from around the globe. Universities are evaluated based on six metrics, which include: academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty/student ratio, citations per faculty, international faculty ratio and international student ratio.