Singapore leads Asia in university subject rankings

It managed to achieve more top-20 placements.

The latest QS Quacquarelli Symonds' QS World University Rankings by Subject revealed that Singapore has managed to achieve more top-20 placements than any other Asian nation. Singapore’s two universities take over a quarter (27.6%) of the top-20 positions achieved by Asian universities this year (34 of 122).

Though this is a slightly smaller proportion than in 2016, when Singapore’s two leading universities took 34.6% of Asia’s top-20 places, the nation’s performance still represents a stellar achievement. For example, Singapore is responsible for more than twice as many top-20 subjects as China (34 v 14), and more than any other Asian nation (ahead of Japan, with 32 top-twenty placements).

The National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) are represented ten times in the top 10 of this year’s 46 tables – down from 15 top-10 finishes in 2016. The two universities also see their cumulative share of top-20 positions drop from thirty-six to thirty-four.

Though several Singapore’s top-20 finishes involve downward movements, it is essential to note that these downward movements are minor – an average drop of 3 places – and can predominantly be explained by the typical fluctuations that occur at the top end of the global rankings.

Check out the table below:

Here's more from the study:

• NUS’s thirty-five top-50 finishes is the joint-highest number achieved by any Asian university: The University of Tokyo also achieves thirty-five top-50 placements.
• NTU is the best university in the country for the study of Environmental Sciences (23rd), Mathematics (43rd), and Physics & Astronomy (47th);
• NUS is the best university in the country for the study of Computer Science (10th), Mathematics (14th), and Business & Management Studies (15th);
• Singapore Management University is also featured. It is ranked in six subject tables, and ranks in the top 100 for Accounting & Finance and Business & Management Studies;
• For those seeking to study internationally, Harvard is number-one in 15 tables, ahead of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (12 number-one spots). The University of Cambridge achieves a top-10 position in 36 different subjects, more than any other university;
• QS have added four new subjects to this year’s project. These new subjects are: Anatomy & Physiology, Hospitality & Leisure Management, Sports-related Subjects, and Theology, Divinity, and Religious Studies