CityU climbs to 78th in Times Higher Education World University Rankings

The City University of Hong Kong (CityU) climbed two more places in the world university rankings from 80 last October to 78 on Wednesday due to its strong performance in research quality.

In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025, published last October, CityU was initially ranked 80 out of the top 100 universities worldwide.

In an adjustment made on Wednesday, CityU made a leap for two more positions to 78th, making it a four-position surge as compared to its ranking in 2024, which came in at 82.

The adjustment was prompted by the university's strong performance in research quality, according to Times Higher Education, which measures the university's citation impact, research strength, research excellence, and research influence.

CityU also excelled in the latest 2025 THE World University Rankings by Subject, with seven subjects breaking into the world's top 100 and two of them ranked in the world's top 50, notably mention that law was ranked 2nd in Hong Kong and 7th in Asia.

Seven CityU subjects were ranked among the world's top 100 including Business & Economics, Computer Science, Engineering, Law, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences, which saw the largest increase, climbing from 98th last year to 61st place this year.

Among these, Law, and Business and Economics continued to be ranked in the global top 50, placing 42nd and 48th, respectively.

Among local universities, CityU had four disciplines ranked in the top three in Hong Kong – Law, Life Sciences, Social Sciences, and Arts and Humanities – reflecting the recognition of the University's world-class research teams and capabilities.

"CityU has seen robust development in recent years, with its academic achievements and innovative research being highly recognised both locally and internationally," said Freddy Boey Yin-chiang, the university's President.

"We will continue to support our teaching and research teams in advancing cutting-edge research, promoting industry-university-research collaboration, creating an invaluable and powerful synergy to have a positive impact on society, and actively promoting Hong Kong as an international hub for higher education while building the 'Studying in Hong Kong' brand," he added.

There are five universities from Hong Kong within the top 100 of the rankings published last October.

In addition to CityU, University of Hong Kong was the highest-ranked among universities from Hong Kong, coming in at 35th, while the Chinese University of Hong Kong closely follows at 44th. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology was ranked 66th and Hong Kong Polytechnic University was ranked 84th.

Meanwhile, the University of Hong Kong said its subject of Education Studies has been ranked sixth worldwide, continuing to be the university’s highest-ranked subject.

HKU added that it secured the premier position amongst all other Hong Kong universities with eight out of the 11 subjects ranking first locally, including medical and health, social sciences, law and life sciences.

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University also has five subjects ranked among the top 100 globally, with Business & Economics and Engineering being placed in the top 50.

(Henry Siu)