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The National University of Singapore (NUS) lost its No. 1 university in Asia ranking it held for the past four years to China’s Peking University in the latest Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ranking of Asia’s universities released on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) fell to fifth spot.

NTU was placed third in 2021, together with the University of Hong Kong.

China’s Tsinghua University came in third and the University of Hong Kong was placed fourth this year.

The annual list is generated by the Britain-based higher education consultancy that highlights Asia’s top universities.

Some 760 universities are featured this year, up from 687, making it the largest QS Asia Rankings.

How universities ranked

Institutions are evaluated based on academic and employer recognition, research, resources and the proportion of international faculty and students, among other criteria.

QS senior vice-president Ben Sowter said: “Singaporean higher education has much to be proud of. For nearly a decade, it dominated the top tier of QS’ Asia University Rankings, holding two of the top three spots and retaining the No. 1 position – occupied by NUS or NTU. Despite this year’s slight decline, both its leading institutions are among Asia’s top five.

NUS is Asia’s second-most well-regarded university among international academics, based on QS’ academic reputation indicator.

It is just behind the University of Tokyo, QS said.

NTU was placed ninth regionally for academic reputation.

NUS and NTU are both among the region’s top five according to QS’ measure of scholarly impact in terms of citations per paper, as well as international collaboration.

Singapore’s primary field of research is in engineering and technology, specifically petroleum engineering and computer science, QS said.

However, Singapore’s top two universities did not rank among the region’s top 100 in terms of number of staff with PhD.

An NUS spokesman said: “As one of Asia’s top universities, NUS will continue to build on our strong track record in education, research, innovation and enterprise.

“Our recognition as a leading university in the region and the world is an affirmation of the excellent work of our talented community of faculty, researchers, staff, students and alumni, as they work together to break new ground in teaching, learning and research.”

While NUS came behind Peking University under the Asia Region rankings, the university is ahead of Peking University under the World University rankings.

In response to Mothership's queries, QS explains that they weigh each judging categories differently globally and regionally. Some differences include Academic Reputation, which weighs 40% globally whilst only 30% regionally, and Employer Reputation, which weighs 20% regionally whilst only 10% globally.

If you are curious, you can find out more here and here.

Top photo via scholarships-positions.com