Browse the full results of the Asia University Rankings 2025

One of the most striking things about the performance of China¡¯s universities in recent years is the consistency of their progress. In the suite of Times Higher Education¡¯s university rankings, it is typical for nations¡¯ fortunes to wax and wane over time. In a given year, the overall results for many countries are frequently best described as ¡°mixed¡±, with some institutions up and others down ¨C and often without a clear unifying trend or contextual factor ¨C even if the longitudinal movement is in the right direction.

Not so with China. Its rise has been relentless. And it seems to show no signs of stopping.

This year¡¯s Asia University Rankings ¨C which take the pulse of the performance of 853 universities from 35 countries or territories ¨C are no exception. Twenty-five Chinese institutions achieve their best ever position in 2025.

So how has the Asian giant made such impressive, continual gains? The answer, as explored in our main analysis, lies in its series of highly effective university excellence initiatives, which have consistently provided large amounts of funding, and strategic direction, to a growing group of elite institutions for the past 30 years.

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If any other country in Asia is to seriously compete with China, let alone thwart its progress, it surely needs to implement an equivalent excellence programme.

But, so far, any similar approaches have either struggled to take off or are yet to deliver on their goals.

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Given the large size of both its higher education system and youth population, India perhaps has the most potential to thwart China¡¯s ever-rising rankings performance.

But its Institutes of Eminence programme, which aims to develop world-class universities, has faced issues from the start, and its future is now in doubt.

When India first announced the initiative in 2017 it was hailed as a more sustainable development model than shelved plans to invite in foreign universities. Interestingly, India recently returned to the international branch campus idea ¨C a move that has already attracted interest from institutions in Australia, the UK and elsewhere.

This could, in theory, bolster the performance of Indian institutions, as well as boost finances for cash-strapped Western universities. But the country will also need to seriously invest money and strategy into its top domestic institutions if it is to emulate the kind of consistent rise in performance that has been visible in China.

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The winning formula of national agenda, funding and high-quality faculty is an approach that has also paid off for Singapore, albeit with a much smaller higher education system, as detailed by the former president and current research integrity officer at Nanyang Technological University. Their tale of the rapid rise of the former engineering training institute reveals the importance of national strategy in driving forward higher education and research ¨C as well as the role of rankings in providing data and visibility to allow institutions to enter a virtuous circle of success.

As Bertil Andersson and Tony Mayer?write: ¡°It was the speed of the advance that was seen as most remarkable.¡±

The same could be said of China.?

ellie.bothwell@timeshighereducation.com

Countries/regions represented in the Asia University Rankings 2025

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