The top universities in Asia 2006 : An update

The Times Higher Education Supplement has issued its 2006 report for the world’s university rankings this week, so it’s a good opportunity to update the "Top Universities in Asia 2006" list and discuss Asian academics.

Times Higher continues to show its appreciation for the Asian universities as the Asian universities continue to climb the rankings. Here’s the list of the top university in every country (name; Asian ranking ; 2006 world ranking ; 2005 world ranking ; up/down) :

1. Beijing University, China - 1 ; 14 ; 15 ; up.
2. Tokyo University, Japan - 2 ; 19 ; 16 ; down.
3. National University of Singapore - 3 ; 19 ; 22 ; up.
4. Hong Kong University - 8 ; 33 ; 41 ; up.
5. Indian Institute of Technology -  15 ; 40 ; 57 ; up.
6. Seoul National University, S.Korea - 18 ; 63 ; 93 ; up.
7. National University of Taiwan - 25 ;  108 ; 114 ; up.
8. Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel  - 29 ; 119 ; 77 ; down.
9. Chulalongkorn University Thailand - 41 ; 161 ; 121 ; down.
10. Univ Kebangsaan Malaysia - 48 ; 185 ; 289 ; up.

Most Asian universities on the list have gained better rankings compared to last year. The Times concludes : 

Is Asia emerging as a rival to the US and Europe as home to the world’s top universities? The first three years of the World University Rankings provide a mixed response to this complex question. In each of the three years, Asian institutions have impressed in the rankings.[...]

Japan musters 11 universities in the rankings, perhaps not an impressive total for the world’s second largest economy and one of the most high-technology countries in the world.

Beijing University’s status in the top 20 seems stable.  [...] China has ten entries in the top 200, including four from Hong Kong. By contrast, India, the next most populous nation, manages only three.

Elsewhere in Asia, several ambitious countries show up only modestly in our rankings. The exception (see box) is Singapore, whose national university comes in at 19. It is accompanied by Nanyang Technological University in position 61. However, Taiwan and Thailand manage only one university each in our rankings and Malaysia two, both modestly placed.

I’d be interested in talking to foreigners who go to study in Asia and get a feel of their thoughts about the academy in Asia. From the few interactions that I’ve had with Japanese and Taiwanese professors, comparing to the western academy that I’ve come to know, I’d say they are alot more focused on internal research than the international forum, a good indicator for that being the amount of English papers written. Very few Israelis would ever think writing something in Hebrew, but most papers I was interested in which were written in Asian universities turned out to be in the local language - Japanese and Chinese.

For more information on Times’ methodology and other statistics, visit their website.