NUS loses crown as Asia's best university

Singapore’s premiere university lost by just a mere 0.4 ppt to Tsinghua in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings.

The National University of Singapore (NUS) falls one place to the 23rd spot in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings with its overall score of 82.4. Replacing it in the 22nd spot by a mere 0.4 ppt is Beijing’s Tsinghua University with its score of 82.8.

With this, NUS is dethroned by Tsinghua as Asia’s top university. NUS garnered lower scores in teaching (77.3), research (88.8) and industry income (67.6) compared to Tsinghua’s scores in the said areas which were recorded at 87.7, 94.1, and 99.8, respectively.

With its ascent as the best university in Asia, Tsinghua had also beaten its neighbour, Peking University which consistently had better rankings in the World Reputation Rankings for the past years.

According to University of Oxford professor Simon Marginson, Tsinghua has outperformed US and even Europe in terms of its high citation research in mathematics and computing. It is also advancing fast in physical sciences and engineering, he added.

“If Tsinghua is that strong now, imagine where it will be in five years with the continued increases in funding under the Double World-Class Project and more support from China’s enterprises for research,” Marginson explained. “We are already at the stage where many of the world’s best physical sciences researchers want to work at Tsinghua, just as they see MIT, Berkeley or Cambridge as great places to be.”

Meanwhile, NUS continued to be Asia’s finest in terms of citations with its score of 78.9 (vs. 74.8) and international outlook with its score of 95.5 (vs. 45).

In terms of area studies, NUS placed the highest in engineering and technology where it was ranked as the eighth best globally. Other programmes also recorded high world rankings including computer science (13th), business and economics (16th), physical sciences (16th), and social sciences (21th) amongst others.