The top universities in Asia | Fili’s World

23 Aug, 2006 in Asia, Israel, Studies by Fili
Tags: Asia, hebrew_university, Israel, Studies, top_universities_in_asia

The top universities in Asia

Which are the top universities in Asia? how do those compare to other universities around the world? it depends on who you ask. Having been educated in the very western-oriented university in Israel - the Hebrew University - I’ve been given the feeling that universities in Asia aren’t that good of an option. If you want proper education, then the west - being mainly about the US and the UK - is the best option to consider. When I tell friends and family in Israel that I’m considering enrolling for a PhD in a university in Asia, I usually get a shocked response hinting that they don’t understand why anybody would think of such a thing, especially when it comes to PhDs. "National University of Taiwan? did you ever hear of any western who actually studied there?", "How good can a National University of Singapore be?" or my personal favorite "I didn’t know China has universities".

Looking into the subject this past few months I’ve been quite surprised to see just how dominant Asian universities are in the world of a western-oriented academy and that they are steadily climbing the world rankings to compete with the best universities. In my search for some sort of standard to compare universities in the east to the ones in the west I resulted in using the "world top universities" lists, which have changed my perspective - but that have still left me a bit confused.

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Just a week ago Shanghai Jiao Tong university, which is obviously in China, has released their "Academic ranking of world universities" for the year 2006 . This list, like other lists, details the ranking of universities according to certain criteria, in different clusters including an Asian cluster .

We rank universities by several indicators of academic or research performance, including alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, highly cited researchers, articles published in Nature and Science, articles indexed in major citation indices, and the per capita academic performance of an institution.

For each indicator, the highest scoring institution is assigned a score of 100, and other institutions are calculated as a percentage of the top score. The distribution of data for each indicator is examined for any significant distorting effect; standard statistical techniques are used to adjust the indicator if necessary.

Think this list isn’t used alot? do a small Google search and you’ll see it up there with the Times Supplemental list and Webometrics (which I’ll mention later). On the academic lists I’m subscribed to they take this list very seriously, mentioning their rankings in university brochures.

It’s a nice feature for me that on those lists Israel is considered to be located in Asia, so this way I can compare my own Hebrew University in Israel to the other universities I’m interested in across Asia.

What does the 2006 list have to say about the universities in Asia? Well, unsurprisingly Japan dominates the top 10 Asian universities list, with Tokyo and Kyoto universities in the first two places (19 and 22 on world list). Hebrew University is 4th place (60). Other Asian countries? National University of Singapore is ranked 10-19 (102-150) followed by some other big Israeli universities. Taiwan makes a first appearance with National Taiwan University at 20-24 (151-200) together with the Chinese Tsing Hua University, the Korean Seoul National University and the University of Hong Kong. India only appears at 41-63 (301-400) with Indian Institute of Science.

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Another very famous list, which gives Asian universities alot more respect, is "The Times Higher Education Supplement ". This years ranking is still not updated, and the last ranking is from October 2005.

The Times gives a completely different look on the Asian universities in the world rank. It’s shocking to find China over-ranking Japan with the first place going to Beijing University (15 in world rank), and only second place given to Tokyo University (16). National University of Singapore comes in 4th (22), Hong Kong University 10th (41), Indian Institute of Technology 14th (40), the Hebrew University 20th (77), Seoul National University 26 (93), and National University of Taiwan at 33 (114).

Why are there such big difference in ranking between the two lists? I believe it’s got to do with the way they measure the rankings, since The Times relies on peer review, recruiter review, international faculty score, international students score, faculty/student score, and citations score. It seems that Shanghai Jiao Tong’s ranking is alot more academic than the very practical The Times ranking.

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Last, is the Internet based Webometrics , last ranking being from January 2006 and should be updated in the upcoming month. Their Asian rankings are really low.

First up is the Tokyo University (87 in world rank), second is the Hebrew University (131), National University of Singapore is 3rd, National University of Taiwan 6th (190), Chinese University of Hong Kong 8th (217), Beijing University is 10th place (239), Seoul University 11th (311).

The webometrics is based on a combination of internet links and tools like Google Scholar and the other rankings maintained on the web :

The number of global rankings available for comparison purposes is very limited, so only six different sources were used for extracting the data. As absolute values are not comparable, all the figures were converted into rankings. The data providers are:

Our own Webometrics Ranking of World Universities ;

Essential Science Indicators - http://scientific.thomson.com/products/esi/; http://www.in-cites.com/; http://www.esi-topics.com/) ; Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com) ;

The data for popularity (number of visits) was extracted from the Alexa http://www.alexa.com) ;

The Academic Ranking of World Universities ; The Times Higher World University Rankings 2005 database

I’m assuming the reasons for the poor Asian rating is that the web is still very western oriented academically (try finding a Taiwanese article in Google Scholar).

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What does it all mean ? Asian universities are an option when considering where to study as some Asian universities are ranked among the top ones in the world. It was interesting to see how the big Asian universities top my Israeli alternative and that - overall - the Asian rankings are slowly getting better.

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17 Responses so far | Have Your Say!

David on Formosa | August 23rd, 2006 at 9:44 pm #

There really is an implicit Western bias in this kind of analysis. The construct of a university in the modern world is an essentially Western one. That is not to say that great educational institutions have not existed in Asia. Indeed there were many great centres of learning in India and China way back in the past.

I have also been thinking about enrolling in a post-graduate course here in Taiwan. As for whether these universities are a good choice, it really depends on your goals and exactly what you want to study. If you want to study something specifically related to the country/region and live and work there then they might be a good choice. For more general courses, they might not be such a good choice.
fiLi | August 25th, 2006 at 4:26 am #

Hmmm… I’m starting to think that might not be so true. If the Hebrew University is considered a fairly good option (locally, but also internationally, especially for Jewish folks), then why couldn’t National Taiwan University or National University of Singapore be valid options?

Studying with a US university, as good as it may be, doesn’t sound half as interesting and educating - regardless of their academic reputation - as studying in a different culture. It’s another language, another culture, another method for thinking and discussing things.

This whole issue bothers me. Could be an interesting research subject, though… (from an Asian university)
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Arvin Lagda | January 28th, 2007 at 3:13 pm #

“First up is the Tokyo University (87 in world rank), second is the Hebrew University (131), National University of Singapore is 3rd, the Korean Keio is 4th (145), National University of Taiwan 6th (190), Chinese University of Hong Kong 8th (217), Beijing University is 10th place (239).”

Correction, Keio University is in Japan, not in Korea.
fiLi | January 28th, 2007 at 3:37 pm #

Yes, you’re right. Thanks for the correction.
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Ad Infinitus Magnitudo | April 28th, 2008 at 10:32 pm #

This is preposterous! How come that no Philippine university did make it to the top 50 universities in Asia? I think there is still a big problem regarding the global discrimination for us great Filipinos. Poverty in our country is not an excuse, what is the real culprit here is the corrupt government of ours who is neglective of the needs of it’s people, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have the potential of having a representative for the top 50 universities in Asia. This is completely insane! I’m out of here!
Miguel | July 19th, 2008 at 10:18 pm #

Asian Institute of Management in the Philippines as cited by Fortune, Asia Week and Financial Times is definitely the BEST and TOP ASIAN MBA school in Asia. If you do your homework, you will know that the only competition of AIM is IIM (Indian Institute of Management. They are the Ivy League of Asia. They are the oldest schools for MBA that truly came up already with the CEO’s and top leaders in the public and private sectors. The new MBA schools in Asia just established themselves in the 1990’s and tried to co-brand with US universities as springboard like INSEAD, Univ. Chicago for co-branding name. But what’s in a name or co-branding if it has not proven itself yet as an educational institution. Since it takes a long time for any MBA school to come up with leaders that they truly honed. The 8 Ivy League schools in the US are called Ivy, for one, is because they are the oldest institutions. The older the institution have better chances of coming up with leaders because it takes years of experience to get to the top of the organization and to take on a distinguished leadership position. AIM and IIM do not need to co-brand with any Western MBA name, because their graduates already hold distinguished leadership roles in Asia. Of course, if they took their MBA’s, most would either come from AIM or IIM, being the oldest institutions for MBA in Asia. Besides, doing business in Asia is different from doing business in Western countries, making these schools the authority for coming up with top Asian leaders. My point is do your research on quality of graduates, faculty, year of establishment and you will know that ASIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT WILL RANK NO. 1 IN ALMOST ALL CATEGORIES. It is the Harvard of Asia Pacific. Maybe, Indian Institute of Management will compete but the quality of the students is not as diverse as AIM which makes AIM, still the BEST and by far the IVY LEAGUE in Asia. Just do your homework.
Joshua | July 19th, 2008 at 10:27 pm #

I agree, Asian Institute of Management (Philippines) is still the BEST or Top Asian MBA school based on quality of graduates and faculty. Yes, it is definitely one of the oldest schools for Asian MBA. Good job Asia Week, Financial Times and Fortune. In fairness, Fortune said Asian Institute of Management is the forerunner in one of their latest articles. Also, Business Week mentioned AIM as top school but not the no. 1 which I truly disagree!!!! I think Asian Institute of Management is no.1 Top MBA school in Asia. It has always been cited in Top 3, though by most in the past few years.
Sofia | July 19th, 2008 at 10:34 pm #

Yes, I want to go to Asian Institute of Management (Philippines) but the tuition is $24k plus housing, thesis and international exchange which will also amount to $50k. Please help if you know of any scholarship? Top Asian MBA is the way to go in this globalization. Even my friend who had Ivy League undergrad wants to go for Top Asian MBA to make him unique and apply to Goldman Sachs. Anyone knows how to get to Asian Institute of Management on scholarship?
fiLi | July 19th, 2008 at 10:39 pm #

Miguel - if you weren’t so quick on the “just do your homework” trigger, you might have noticed that there are additional posts on this website that target the Asia MBA rankings.

This list is for comprehensive universities that include all fields of studies, and it has nothing to do with my personal preferences towards those universities, I quote the leading world rankings as they are.

The “just do your homework” is a good advice I recommend you try and follow yourself next time.
Kel | September 19th, 2008 at 2:49 pm #

Asian universities do not perform quite well in the Academic ranking of universities or Webometrics ranking of universities, most US universities dominate the lists of Top 10, perhaps they should put more emphasis on the research performance..

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