Western leading universities risk declining, Asian institutes keep rising

The top ten universities in the world still belong to the United States and Britain, while some leading Asian universities continue to rise, according to the latest authorized world university rankings released Wednesday.

Times Higher Education (THE) on Wednesday published the World University Rankings 2014-15, showing that California Institute of Technology is still in the first place for the fourth consecutive year, followed by Harvard University in second and the University of Oxford in third.

Stanford University is ranked fourth, and University of Cambridge stands at the fifth place. Massachusetts Institute of Technology down one place to sixth, which just won the first place of another well-known higher education rankings, QS World University Rankings released last week.

It shows that the U.S. continues to dominate the rankings, taking seven of the top 10 places and 15 of the top 20. But this year it has lost significant ground. It has 74 universities in the top 200, down from 77 last year.

However, It was a strong year for Asian universities, with 24 universities on the top 200 list, four more than last year.

Tokyo University and the National University of Singapore is ranked 23rd and 25th, respectively. Seoul National University stands at the 50th place, slipping from 44th last year.

Two Chinese mainland universities, Peking and Tsinghua universities stand closely at the 48th and 49th place. While the University of Hong Kong maintained its position at 43rd in the world, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology moved up from 57th to 51st.

"East Asia's top universities continue their strong upward movement in the rankings, on the back of strong government financial support, strong leadership and a strong commitment to excellence in higher education and research. We now have two Asian universities in the world top 25 for the first time, with eight Asian institutions in or very close to the world top 50 and 24 Asian institutions in the top 200," said Phil Baty, the editor of Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

"At the same time, many Western universities, in many cases starved of vital public funding, are losing ground. ... There is little doubt that key East Asian nations have emerged as powerhouses in global higher education and research, while traditional leaders including the UK, Canada and the US, risk losing significant ground in the global knowledge economy," he said.

"China continues its impressive progress in the THE's prestigious league tables, while Peking and Tsinghua maintain their positions among the world top 50, we now see further evidence that the Chinese government's powerful and admirable commitment to developing world-class universities is paying off for other universities too," he added.

The ranking of Fudan University is 193rd, while University of Science and Technology of China, Nanjing University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Renmin University of China, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhejiang University, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan University enter the top 400.