Tsinghua University in Beijing has usurped the National University of Singapore's throne.

The university in China has been ranked number one in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a study released on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019 by Times Higher Education.

Famous alumni

President Xi Jinping and retired state leaders such as Hu Jintao and Zhu Rongji are the university's famous alumni.

Tsinghua University has become the first institution in mainland China to be ranked first on this list.

It was ranked second in 2018, and fourth in the inaugural study in 2017.

NUS loses top spot

NUS fell to second place in the 2019 rankings. It took top spot in both 2017 and 2018.

The University of Melbourne bounced back to third, its position in 2017, from fourth in 2018.

Here is a list of of the top 10:

1. Tsinghua University

2. National University of Singapore

3. University of Melbourne

4. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

5. University of Hong Kong

6. Peking University

7. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

8. Australian National University

9. Chinese University of Hong Kong

10. The University of Tokyo

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), went from sixth in 2018 and seventh in 2017 to fourth in 2019.

The University of Hong Kong remained in fifth place. It was sixth in 2017.

Chinese University rose to the ninth spot from 10th in 2018, and was not among the top 10 the year before.

Biggest slide

Another mainland institution in the top 10 in the 2019 rankings was Peking University, in sixth place.

It fell from third in 2018 and second in 2017.

13 countries and regions

The Asia-Pacific rankings comprised a total of 320 tertiary institutions from across 13 countries and regions, including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

The study rates universities across 13 performance indicators that measure how well an institution has done in teaching, research volume and reputation, research influence, international outlook and knowledge transfer.

Ellie Bothwell, global rankings editor at Times Higher Education, said: “Since 2017, Tsinghua has maintained or improved its score each year in all five pillars underpinning the table: teaching, research, citations, international outlook and industry income. It has stronger teaching and research scores than NUS and a much higher industry income score this year.”