The Rise of Asian Universities

In 2003 the Shanghai ranking placed only a handful of Asian universities in the global top 100. Today the National University of Singapore, Tsinghua, Peking, Nanyang Technological University, and the University of Hong Kong appear routinely in the top 50 of major tables.

Massive government investment, returning diaspora faculty, and English-language graduate programs drove the shift. KAIST, founded only in 1971, now files among the most cited engineering research in the world.

The center of gravity in higher education is genuinely moving east..