National University of Singapore (NUS), the University of Melbourne and the University of Tokyo as the most successful universities in the Asia Pacific region in terms of the number of top-ten rankings.
The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings for 2014, covering 30 academic disciplines and the 200 top universities in the world, includes five universities in the region with top-ten rankings:
- National University of Singapore (NUS), which is now 5th worldwide for Chemical Engineering
- University of Melbourne
- University of Tokyo
- Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
- Kyoto University
The University of Tokyo and the University of Kyoto were both in the top ten for Chemical Engineering. Both universities and the University of Hong Kong were also named in the top ten list for Civil and Structural Engineering. The University of Tokyo is also listed in the top ten for Mechanical, Aeronautical & Manufacturing Engineering and Physics & Astronomy, while the University of Melbourne has been recognised for Law.
Globally, Harvard is the most successful all-round institution, ranking first in 11 disciplines, while New York University is no. 1 in the world for philosophy and Stanford for statistics. University of California, Davis is best for agriculture, the University of Wisconsin-Madison for communications and media studies, the Institute of Education for education, and University of California, Berkeley for the environmental sciences.
"The range of institutions that are world-leading in a given discipline is much wider than we are often led to believe by overall rankings," said QS Head of research Ben Sowter. "We are conditioned to think of a handful of big-name institutions such as the Ivies and Oxbridge as being the best regardless of the subject. It may be time to challenge that received wisdom."
