London, July 4 (CNA) Seven universities in Taiwan were ranked in the top 100 in the Asia Pacific University Rankings 2017 released Tuesday by Times Higher Education magazine, with National Taiwan University ranking the highest at 33rd.
Taiwan placed a total of 26 universities among the 241 universities in the rankings, which were conducted for the first time this year and analyzed universities across 38 nations in East Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania.
Times Higher Education also issues an Asia University Rankings focused only on universities in Asia, including South and West Asia, and National Taiwan University fell to 24th in this year's rankings, released in March, from 15th a year earlier.
The new Asia-Pacific survey judged universities based on 13 performance indicators in five areas: teaching (the learning environment), research (volume, income and reputation), citations (research influence), international outlook (staff, students and research), and industry income (knowledge transfer).
Phil Baty, who was in charge of the survey, said Taiwan excelled in knowledge transfer, but was weak in international outlook, which was the strength of Australia and New Zealand.
He suggested that Taiwan attract more international students and teachers and expand cooperation with overseas scholars to help it move up in the rankings.
The most represented nation in this year's rankings was Japan, with 69 universities making the list of the top 241.
China came in second with 52 universities on the list, followed by Australia (35), Taiwan (26), South Korea (25) and Thailand (nine).
National University of Singapore topped the rankings, followed by Peking University, the University of Melbourne, Tsinghua University (China) and Nanyang Technological University (Singapore).
Rounding out the top 10 were the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Australian National University, the University of Tokyo and the University of Queensland.
Aside from National Taiwan University, the six other Taiwanese schools placing in the top 100 were National Tsing Hua University (47th), National Chiao Tung University (53rd), National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (57th), National Cheng Kung University (65th), China Medical University (84th), and National Taiwan Normal University (99th).
Outside the top 100, the survey did not rank schools individually but in groups of 10.
National Sun Yat-sen University and Taipei Medical University ranked between 101st and 110th, National Central University and National Yang Ming University were ranked between 111th and 120th, and Chang Kung University finished between 121st and 130th.
Feng Chia University ranked between 141st and 150th, Kaohsiung Medical University and National Taiwan Ocean University placed between 151st and 160th, and Chung Yuan University, National Chung Cheng University and National Chung Hsing University all finished between 161st to 170th.
Asia University, National Taipei University of Technology and Yuan Ze University ranked from 171st to 180th.
The five Taiwanese universities placing outside the top 200 were Fu Jen Catholic University, I-Shou University, Ming Chuan University, National Chengchi University and Tamkang University.
