The recently published QS University Ranking lists the most prominent universities in Asia. The Asian higher education institutions are ranked according to subject areas and academic criteria. The fields of study cover the arts and humanities, life sciences and biomedicine, natural sciences, as well as social sciences, IT and engineering. The academic criteria considered include academic peer review, recruiter reviews, student-faculty ratios, citations per paper, international faculty and students, and inbound and outbound student exchange figures.

Some key results highlighted by the ranking are:

• The University of Tokyo is the absolute winner in all five subject areas and in two academic criteria categories (academic peer review and recruiter review).
• According to the citations per paper criterion, four of the top five universities are in Japan and one is the University of Hong Kong, which is ranked second in this area.
• In terms of the proportion of international students, the National University of Singapore is the strongest institution, followed by the Nanyang Technology University, also in Singapore

The data were systematically collected from higher education institutions and their websites, from central statistical agencies and from third parties that also collect and maintain relevant information. As with any ranking exercise, of course, these data are subject to various interpretations, depending on the idiosyncrasies and limitations of the methodology and the data collection process.

QS