Congratulations to W100 members the National University of Singapore and Chinese University of Hong Kong who both maintained their top ten positions in the latest THE Asia Rankings published on 1 June.

The rankings, launched at THE’s Asia Summit hosted by Fujita Health University in Japan, featured continuing strong performances from institutions in China, with Tsinghua and Peking universities taking the top two spots for the third consecutive year. 30 Chinese institutions are in the top 100 this year.

In contrast, Japan has seen the number of its universities in the top 100 decline from 14 to 8 compared with 2020. However, it is still the most-represented nation overall, with 118 institutions. W100 member Kyushu ranks just outside the top 100, and Keio University ranks in the top 200.

New W100 member the University of Indonesia sits just outside the top 200, but improved its score for International Outlook in the past year.

The methodology for the THE Asia Rankings uses the same 13 performance indicators as the World University Rankings, but with some changes in emphasis for particular measures in the overall score. The scores for teaching reputation (10%) and research reputation (15%) make up only 25% of the total score, compared to 33% in the World University Rankings.

Despite its downplaying in the methodology, reputation remains an important factor for Asian universities and many institutions continue to develop a strategic focus to ensure that they maximise their impact with international academics who vote in the academic reputation surveys that feed the rankings.

We will feature a special session on reputation and rankings with THE colleagues at the forthcoming World 100 Network Annual Conference in Montreal.