Unis unfazed by world rankings slide

Hong Kong's top three universities took a sharp dive in the latest QS World University Rankings.

The University of Hong Kong ranked 26th, five places down from last year, while Chinese University ranked 47th, falling nine spots. And the University of Science and Technology saw a significant drop to 60th spot from 40th last year.

This year's rankings included the top 1,500 universities worldwide.

Five Hong Kong universities, including City University and the Polytechnic University, remain in the world's top 100. Except for PolyU at No 65, rankings have dropped across the board for SAR institutions.

CityU fell 16 places to 70th, while Baptist University dropped 14 places to 295th and Lingnan University fell to the 641-650th bracket from last year's rank of 601-650th.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, and two British universities - University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford - snapped the top three spots in the latest rankings.

The National University of Singapore, at eighth, was the highest-ranked Asian university. It was also the only Asian university in the top 10.

Peking University and Tsinghua University are China's highest-ranked institutions at 17th and 25th, respectively. Nanyang Technological University from Singapore was tied at 26th with HKU.

A HKU spokesman said: "The University of Hong Kong remains steadfast in its commitment to delivering exceptional education for our students, with a relentless pursuit of excellence in teaching, research and knowledge exchange. By implementing our visionary blueprint for the university's future growth and aspiring to become Asia's Global university, we are confident that our international reputation will continue to flourish."

The Chinese University said this year's result "once again validates the university's position as a global leader in research and education" as the CUHK has managed to remain in the world's top 50 for eight consecutive years.

"The global higher education sector is still recovering from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic which impacted a range of factors including non-local student mobility and international faculty recruitment. CUHK is now experiencing a strong recovery in non-local student demand and is ramping up its efforts to recruit talented scholars from around the world," CUHK said.

"CUHK remains guided by its commitment to generating positive impact and contributing to communities here in Hong Kong, across the nation, and around the world."

HKUST said it will take the university rankings as "useful references."

"Rankings go up and down due to various reasons, HKUST will take them as useful references to learn more about ours and other universities' performance and identify areas for improvement," it said.

"University ranking is one of the references for evaluating the performance of an institution, but what's more important is a proven track record in teaching and research."

The HKUST said it demonstrated its capability in teaching and research over the years through numerous accolades gained by its students and faculty and its many partnerships with top institutions worldwide.

It added that its graduates continue to be ranked among the most competitive and desirable employees in the global job market.

"The university will continue to contribute to the academic, research and industrial development."

The Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings, an analytics provider, has for the last 33 years committed itself to empowering people across the globe to fulfill their potential through education and guidance.

The methodology behind the rankings were updated last year by introducing three new metrics - sustainability, employment outcomes and international research network - to go along with global engagement and learning experiences.