Top 10 universities in Asia in 2024

Mainland China dominates the top 10 best universities in Asia with five schools, with Tsinghua and Peking University leading for the fifth consecutive time.

Time Higher Education (THE) announced the 2024 Asia University Rankings on May 1. The top two positions are still held by Tsinghua and Peking Universities in China. The National University of Singapore ranked third, unchanged from last year.

There was some reshuffling in the rest of the top 10. China’s Zhejiang University moved up to 8th place, from 12th last year, replacing Seoul National University in South Korea.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong dropped from 6th to 10th. The University of Tokyo, Shanghai Jiaotong and Fudan universities rose 1-3 places.

In terms of numbers, mainland China has half of the representatives in the top 10, Hong Kong SAR has two schools. Singapore also has two, Japan has one, and South Korea has none.

Top 10 universities in Asia in 2024 (Tuition fees are converted to USD, according to the exchange rate of May 2024):

Asia Ranking 2024	Asia Ranking 2023	University	Country, territory	World Ranking 2024	Average tuition fees (USD/year)
1	1	Thanh Hoa	China	12	3,590-9,667
2	2	Beijing	China	14	3,590-4,695
3	3	Singapore	Singapore	19	13,130-52,230
4	5	Nanyang Technology	Singapore	32	13,217-57,210
5	8	Tokyo	Japan	29	4,735
6	4	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	35	23,270
7	=9	Shanghai Traffic	China	43	3,432-11,040
8	=9	Fudan	China	44	3,150-11,360
9	12	Zhejiang	China	=55	2,720-27,610
10	6	Hong Kong Chinese	Hong Kong	53	18,540

THE is one of the three largest university ranking organizations in the world, along with QS and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China).

This year’s Asian University Rankings features 739 schools from 31 countries and territories. Japan leads the way with 119 ranked schools, followed by India with 91. Vietnam has six representatives, most of whom have dropped in rank compared to last year.

On its website, THE said it evaluates universities based on 18 criteria, divided into 5 groups: research quality (30%), research environment (28%), teaching (24.5%), income from knowledge transfer and ability to attract funding (10%), international outlook (7.5%). Compared to the previous ranking, the number of criteria increased by 5, and the weight of each criterion also changed.