Five HK unis make world top-100 grade
Money glitz | Eunice Lam 13 Oct 2022
Five Hong Kong universities are among the world's top 100 for the first time according to a comprehensive listing from Britain.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2023 include 1,799 universities across 104 countries and regions.
That makes the listing the largest and most diverse university rankings to date.
Universities are rated based on 13 performance indicators in five areas - teaching, research, citations, knowledge transfer and international outlook.
Four SAR universities' rankings rose within the top 100.
And though the University of Hong Kong slipped one place to 31st in the world it continues to be rated the best university in the SAR and ranks fourth among universities in Asia.
But the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and City University of Hong Kong saw their world rankings up.
CityU's world ranking climbed 52 places to 99th - the biggest improvement among local universities.
Chinese University edged up one notch to the 45th in the world, while HKUST went eight places higher from the previous listing to 58th and PolyU rose 12 places to 79th.
Two mainland universities in the capital, Tsinghua University and Peking University, are 16th and 17th in the world and also take the first and second places in Asia.
And Singapore universities still performed better than Hong Kong in general as the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University rank 19th and 36th in the world, respectively.
The University of Oxford in the United Kingdom remains the world's top university for a seventh consecutive year.
Harvard University in the United States is second while Britain's University of Cambridge and America's Stanford University are tied for third.
Phil Baty, chief knowledge officer for Times Higher Education, said data shows a clear shift in the global knowledge economy from the western world as more institutes in East Asia and the Middle East make it into the rankings.
"I think this shift - a global leveling up - is good news for the world," Baty said. "A rising tide is lifting all boats: access to top quality education is opening up globally and helping to diminish the brain drain from developing countries."
A spokesman for the University of Hong Kong said it will continue to strive to provide quality education for students to achieve excellence and innovation in teaching and learning, research and knowledge exchange.
"We firmly believe the work we are undertaking to achieve the aims outlined in our vision document with the commitment to being Asia's global university will enhance our international reputation," he added.
Rocky Tuan Sung-chi, Chinese University's vice-chancellor and president, said the result is "a testament to the outstanding talent and extraordinary dedication and vision of the entire CUHK community."
He added: "With Hong Kong's evolution and transition to a knowledge-based economy and integration with the nation's development, our world-class universities are primed to make vital contributions to the city's endeavors as a super-connector between China and the world."
A spokesman for the University of Science and Technology said HKUST sees the rankings as "useful references for us to understand more about our performances and identify areas for improvement."
PolyU president Teng Jinguang was pleased with an impressive performance, saying: "We will refer to such rankings and other forms of assessment of our achievements to identify areas for further improvement so we can make even greater contributions in the future to the development of Hong Kong, our nation and the world."
And a CityU spokesman said it "continues to cement its place among top global universities by upholding the international standards of the integration of teaching and research and the separation of education and politics."
eunice.lam@singtaonewscorp.com
