China has been a stand-out performer among the world’s most prestigious universities, overtaking some top Western establishments according to rankings released Wednesday by Times Higher Education (THE), a UK-based leading provider of higher education data.

Beijing-based Tsinghua University ranks highest among Chinese universities and it enters the top 15 for the first time, jumping four slots to the 14th, while Peking University makes its debut in the top 20, leaping four slots up to the 17th. 

Both universities have moved past some of the most renowned universities in the UK and the US, namely Imperial College London, the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University.

Peking University /VCG Photo

In addition, Zhejiang University in east China city of Hangzhou also stars in the rankings, climbing 30 places to the 51-60 band, overtaking Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which both lie in the 81-90 band. Nanjing University has made the top 100 for the first time, ranking in the 91-100 band.

The University of Hong Kong has ascended six places to the joint 39th, the first time in five years that the university has featured in the top 40. 

Overall, schools in the United States dominated the top 10, with Harvard University lying on top for the seventh consecutive year, followed by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford University.

THE World Reputation Rankings 2017: top 10 /THE graphic‍

Phil Baty, THE rankings editor, spoke highly of Chinese universities' performances this year, saying "a striking feature of the THE World Reputation Rankings is the continued rise of China. "

Zhou Zhong, associate professor in comparative and international education at Tsinghua University, said that China’s determination to develop world-class universities through a number of excellence initiatives since the 1980s is a key factor in its success.

Zhou added that Tsinghua’s rising reputation was partly due to several major “scientific and technological breakthroughs in recent years”, which have “drawn wide attention across the world to some of Tsinghua’s core strengths in big science”.

THE graphic

China’s latest project, dubbed World Class 2.0, was announced in 2015. It aims to establish six of its universities in the leading group of global institutions by 2020, and for some of those to reach top 15 status by 2030.

The World Reputation Rankings are based on an invitation-only opinion survey carried out between January and March, with 10,566 responses from 137 countries and regions. Among those surveyed are experienced and published scholars from various disciplines, who were asked to name no more than 15 universities that they believe are the best for research and teaching in their field, based on their own experience.

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