Two Beijing universities took the top two places in Asia for the first time in the world university rankings 2020 released by Times Higher Education (THE) on September 11. The poll includes almost 1400 universities across 92 countries, and the table is based on 13 calibrated performance indicators to provide an overall comprehensive comparison of different institutions.

Tsinghua University is at 23^rd place in the world’s top 100 universities, a slight decline from its 22^nd position last year. Peking University made a considerable jump to 24^th from its previous ranking of 31^st. Five other universities from the Chinese mainland made the top 200, namely University of Science and Technology of China, Zhejiang University, Fudan University, Nanjing University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the same number as in 2019.

Meanwhile, on the poll, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology fell from 41^st to 47^th place, while Chinese University of Hong Kong fell to 57^th from 53^rd last year. The National Taiwan University was also ranked lower this year, in 120th place. Last year’s top Asian institution was the National University of Singapore, and it placed 25th this year compared to 23^rd in the previous poll.

Once again, the UK and US universities dominated all top ten places this year, while Canadian universities and some European universities have risen up.

The Paper notes that this year’s top universities in mainland China scored higher in citation power and research income, perhaps reflecting the Chinese government’s continued investment in higher education.

As we blogged before, China is gearing up towards expanding its pool of international students as well. In 2015, Vice Premier Liu Yandong stated that the government planned to increase the number of international students in China to 500,000 by the end of 2020. The country’s universities have continued to extend their influence and presence on the world stage.

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China is gearing up towards expanding its pool of international students. In 2015, Vice Premier Liu Yandong stated that the government planned to increase the number of international students in China to 500,000 by the end of 2020. As of 2018, there were 492,185 international students in China so the Vice Premier’s statements seem to be coming to fruition. The massive rise in the popularity of China as a study abroad destination could be attributed to many factors. The principle factors include favorable government policies, economic factors, and the rising prestige of Chinese universities.

Related Government Policies

The ‘Double World Class Project’ was launched in 2015 with the aim of strengthening the reputation and performance of China’s top-ranked universities. In addition, China’s massive “One Belt, One Road” development has been a powerful lever for these academic links. Backed by a USD 50 billion investment fund, the strategy is targeting new projects and partnerships along traditional Silk Road trade routes throughout Asia, Europe, and Africa. Due to the movement to expand student markets, more than half of these students are coming from other counties in Asia.

Economic Factors

According to survey respondents in this article from the Association for Studies in International Education titled “the Emergence of a Regional Education Hub: Rationales of International Students’ Choice of China as the Study Destination”, the main factors are the affordability of Chinese universities along with the availability of scholarships, and the growth of the Chinese economy in recent years. The article states that, “China’s rising economic weight in the world has become an important driving force for pulling international students to study in China.”

Prestige of Chinese Universities

While universities in the United States and the UK still dominate the top 100 list of global university rankings, China is leading Asian universities in the 2019 World University Rankings. Beijing’s own Tsinghua University leads all eastern hemisphere universities as the top institution in Asia by being ranked 22^nd in the world as of 2019. China’s focus in improving the quality of education in their first-tier universities has played a significant role in pulling in a greater number of international students to the country.

Sam Langton from Venture Education, which is a Beijing-based consultancy driving UK excellence in education, entrepreneurship, and employability, as well as one of the members of the British Chamber of Commerce in China, shared his opinions with beijingkids about the growth of China as the next big study abroad destination in Asia:

“China still has a way to go before it can be seen as a truly major international education destination. If you look at the government’s recent data on the top fifteen source countries of international students in China for example, thirteen of the fifteen are in Asia, and nine of these border with China. What’s more, in 2016, 53 percent of students were enrolled in short term, non-degree programs, often Mandarin programs, as opposed to full degree programs. Although the proportion of students on full degree programs has been on the rise, it will be difficult to compete with universities in the UK, USA, and Australia, countries in which English is the primary language of all degree programs.”

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So the question of school rankings is kind of like the Hamlet’s “To be or not to be?” But it does not have to question what Hamlet was contemplating – to live or die. Yet, there are times when it feels, based on conversations I have had with students and their parents, that when it comes to school lists – boarding or college, to rank is to “Be,” to not rank is to “Die.”

From the last couple of years of writing for beijingkids, it should be apparent that, from my perspective, ranking in no way represents the quality or education found at a school, in a classroom, nor the impact a particular professor may have had on an individual student. That last sentence, if taken apart should lead the reader to understand, or at least think, about all the variations that go into education, but it only touches the surface.

So why is this article about ranking and college lists? First off, if you’re the parent of a senior, or looking at boarding schools, or the student in this mix, it is time to get your list of colleges in order, if you haven’t already. And your list MUST have a good order to it – Reach, Core and Foundation. Hopefully, you have done more than enough research to be able to understand how you fit those schools. Just an aside, if you are looking at ranking, most probably you are not placing the correct emphasis on ranking in your school search, i.e. too much on overall rank rather than other factors.

I raise this point for a couple of reasons. I recently had to rank some schools for a group of students. First, I was asked how the students fared in The Times ranking. Knowing that The Times is particularly British, I also added in the U.S. News ranking, thinking that the Brits, love them dearly, would be looking at a different criteria than Americans. It was interesting to see the differences – some narrow, some vast. Then the query came, “How about QS Rankings?” Wow, a completely different set of numbers came up. But since QS breaks down to World, Region and Country it was very difficult to ascertain what was being asked. My point is this – what are you talking about when the word ranking is used? There are so many different ways of slicing the pie that it is really much easier to look at what a school actually does.

The other reason for this post is the recent article in The New York Times – Why College Rankings Are a Joke by Frank Bruni. Read the article and see what conclusions you come to afterward (VPN required). By the way, Mr. Bruni wrote a fantastic book Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be. Highly recommend it, if it is not too late. But the point comes back to a number of things a student needs to consider in the creation of a list.

I’m often perplexed when students say certain things are important in their education and their lives, and yet throw them all away for the sake of name brand. I recently had an email from a student of mine who now attends a prestigious business school. When he was applying, he was all about international relations and business. So we talked about interesting schools, such as NYU Abu Dhabi and Yale/NUS, as possible schools. But, somehow he got on this track of wanting to be an entrepreneur. He is finding at his current school most students are interested in working in banking or finance; very few share his interest. So, his email was about transferring.  Makes sense, but he seems to feel that Stanford/Silicon Valley is where he wants to go. I remember a previous conversation where the sole reason he was thinking about this was because there were more entrepreneurs in SV than anywhere else. So, I pointed out that SV is now ranked #8 for entrepreneurial endeavors. Sometimes, ranking does have its fine points. I am not sure what my boy is going to do, but I told him to sit tight and get the most out of his education where he is now.

What I am trying to say is that ranking should not be the sole reason for a school to be on your list. Using ranking should be a tool, like a screwdriver when building a car engine. Read the manual first, i.e. research the schools to understand what, why, and how they teach and think to find out if that is what you want. Know that, most likely, you will change your major – most students change majors 5/6 times before they graduate, and many do not pursue careers in their specific majors. Allow for change, growth, and new challenges for, after all, that is what education should be about.

So, while Hamlet contemplated living or dying, choosing a school is not of that magnitude. Where you go is an important decision but perhaps not to the degree that you may think.

Photo: mattsingley.com