Beijing-based Tsinghua University ranks only second to the National University of Singapore among 650 recorded universities in the latest QS Asia University Rankings released on Wednesday.

Other universities made into the top 10 list are Nanyang Technological University, The University of Hong Kong, Zhejiang University, Fudan University, Peking University, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Universiti Malaya, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Among them, seven universities are from China, a similar number to the last year. But three universities out of five from the Chinese mainland recorded their best performance. For example, Tsinghua University has moved two places higher than last year from the 4th to 2nd.

This year, 124 Chinese universities are included in the ranking, the most in Asia, followed by India, 107 and Japan, 105.

QS Quacquarelli Symonds, a London-based higher education analyst firm, gives its assessment of Asia's best universities annually since 2004 when it published the inaugural QS World University Rankings.

The ranking is based on several indicators, including academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty student ratio, citations per faculty, international faculty, and international students.