The University of Oxford has become the first UK university to top the Times Higher Education World University Rankings in the 12-year history of the table. It knocks five-time leader, the California Institute of Technology, into second place in the World University Rankings 2016-2017.

Oxford’s success can be attributed to improved performances across the four main indicators underlying the methodology of the ranking — teaching, research, citations and international outlook. More specifically, the institution’s total income and research income is rising faster than its staff numbers. Its research is more influential, and it has been more successful in attracting international talent.

In Asia two new universities make the Top 100 (Chinese University of Hong Kong and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)), while another four join the Top 200 — City University of Hong Kong, University of Science and Technology of China, Fudan University and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Moreover, China’s two flagship universities have both made gains — Peking University joins the Top 30 at 29 (up from 42 last year), while Tsinghua University joins the Top 40 at 35 (up from joint 47). Asia’s leading institution, the National University of Singapore, is at 24 — its highest ever rank.

Meanwhile, India’s leading university — Indian Institute of Science — is edging closer to the Top 200, claiming a spot in the 201-250 band, its highest ever position. Overall, 289 Asian universities from 24 countries make the list of 980 institutions and an elite group of 19 are in the Top 200, up from 15 last year.

According to Rajika Bhandari, deputy vice president of research and evaluation at the Institute of International Education and co-editor of the book Asia: The Next Higher Education Superpower, the “sharp rise” of Asia’s universities is due to three main factors: rapidly growing populations and demand for higher education in the region; governments making “significant investments” in universities; and improvements by individual institutions.
On advances at university level, she said many Asian scholars who studied at Western universities are now academics in their home countries and have “really begun to transform their own higher education sectors”.