London, June 8 (CNA) A total of 16 universities from Taiwan have been included in the 2018 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings released Thursday by the U.K.-based higher education information provider
National Taiwan University (NTU) ranked 76th in this year's rankings, down eight notches from the previous year but remaining the country's highest-rated university in the annual survey.
In response, Lee Fang-jen, head of NTU's Office of Research and Development, said higher education requires long-term investment, and expressed hope that the Ministry of Education can continue to funnel funds into the school.
The ranking of National Tsing Hua University dropped 10 notches from 151st from 161st the previous year.
Aside from these two universities, eight other local universities made it into the top 400 -- National Chiao Tung University at 207th (down 33 notches), National Cheng Kung University at 222nd (up 19 notches), National Taiwan University of Technology at 264th (down 21 notches), National Taiwan Normal University at 289th (up 21 notches), National Yang Ming University at 329th (down 21 notches), National Sun Yat-sen University at 388th (up seven notches), National Central University at 391st (up 20 notches) and Taipei Medical University at 398th (up three notches).
Six other Taiwanese universities were also ranked, with Chang Kung University ranked in the 481st-490th category, National Cheng Chi University, National Chung Hsing University and National Taipei University of Technology in the 601st-650th category, and Feng Chia University and Fu Jen Catholic University in the 801st-1000th category.
The top four in the world university ranking are all in the United States -- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Harvard University and California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
The universities ranked from fifth to eighth are in the United Kingdom -- University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, University College London and Imperial College London.
Rounding out the top 10 were University of Chicago and ETH Zurich -Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
Nangyang Technological University in Singapore ranked 11th, making it the highest-ranking university in Asia.
The most important indicator used to compile the rankings for 959 schools this year was academic reputation, accounting for 40 percent of the total score.
