Nine universities in Taiwan made it in the top 400 of the UK-based QS World University Rankings. The global rankings factors six key performance indicators. These include academic reputation, employer reputation, student-to-faculty ratio, citations per faculty, and ratios of international faculty and students.
National Taiwan University moved up six spots to 70th while National Tsing Hua University rose to 155th. National Chiao Tung University went up to 182nd and National Cheng Kung University is at 224th.
Deputy Minister of Education Chen Der-hwa said various global ranking systems are a good reference, but there is no need to focus on a particular rank. Chen spoke about the government’s plan to give additional support to its top universities.
"Through this blueprint, we have been able to help each university develop its strengths and build up their overall competiveness in higher education," said Chen.
The ministry is now discussing further plans to upgrade its universities.
MIT topped the QS rankings this year followed by Harvard, Cambridge, Stanford and Caltech. The top Asian university is University of Singapore which ranked 12th.