LONDON, May 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- HKUST leapfrogs HKU and stays ahead of NUS and Tokyo - Japan is the best-represented nation, with five of the top 10 and 57 of the top 200 universities, ahead of China (40) and South Korea (35), Taiwan (16), India (11), Thailand (9), Indonesia (8), Malaysia (7) and Hong Kong (7) - 13 countries represented, with Bangladesh and Pakistan as new entries

Top five universities

    
    2011 2010 Institution name                                   Country
                                                                 /Territory

       1    2  The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology  Hong Kong
       2    1  University of Hong Kong                           Hong Kong
       3    3  National University of Singapore (NUS)            Singapore
       4    5  The University of Tokyo                           Japan
       5    4  The Chinese University of Hong Kong               Hong Kong

(View the top 200 at http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/asian-university-rankings/2011 )

The 2011 QS Asian University Rankings(TM) show that Hong Kong's universities still lead the way despite massive investment from China, Japan, Korea and India. HKUST has underlined its ambitious development by narrowly overtaking HKU to top the table, while Chinese University of Hong Kong retains its place in the top five.

"Both HKUST and HKU are strong across most of the indicators, with their truly international character setting them apart," says Ben Sowter, head of QS Intelligence Unit. "HKUST has the edge in research productivity, where the gap has widened in 2011."

Despite the troubled Japanese economy, its universities continue to perform strongly. Tokyo and Kyoto each move up one place to 4th and 7th respectively.

In Singapore, NUS retains its place in the top three and NTU consolidates its strong 2010 performance, moving up one place to 17th.

Mainland China's universities perform strongly in the reputation indicators, with Peking and Tsinghua both rated in the top seven by academics, and third and fourth by employers.

Two more Indian universities make the top 50 than in 2010, with IIT Kanpur (36) overtaking IIT Bombay, which drops two places to 38. Government investment has increased research productivity, but low scores for citations suggest Indian research is not yet as influential as that of other leading Asian countries. Six out of seven Malaysian universities have improved on their 2010 ranking, with UM rising three places to 39th and UPM up 20 places to 57th.

The dynamism of the region is confirmed by the fact that 20% of the top 50 universities are less than 50 years old, including HKUST which has just celebrated its twentieth anniversary.

(Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field. Remove the space if one exists.)

SOURCE QS Quacquarelli Symonds