THE said Asia resumed an upward trajectory in 2027 while many traditional Western powerhouses recorded declines across several performance measures, making the new Asian entries a clear milestone for the region.

The rankings evaluate universities in five areas: research quality (30%), teaching (29.5%), research environment (29%), international outlook (7.5%) and industry (4%). These five indicators together determine the overall score.

According to THE, both Chinese universities perform strongly in teaching, research and industry, but their international outlook remains a major weakness, especially in international research co‑authorship. Tsinghua scored 60.6 and Peking 67.8 for international outlook, with co‑authorship around 25.

Because research quality, teaching and research environment together account for almost 90% of the total weight, the strong scores of Tsinghua and Peking in those categories helped them climb into the top‑15 despite low international‑outlook marks.

China is investing heavily in universities and seeking to attract international students and researchers, but geopolitical tensions and its emphasis on research self‑sufficiency could limit cross‑border collaboration, THE said. The country also increased its number of universities in the global top 200 from 13 to 17.

NUS moved up from 17th to 15th, driven mainly by better teaching and research scores. THE analysis suggested that if Tsinghua raised its international outlook score to 80, it could reach eighth place worldwide, showing how the outlook metric can still shift rankings.

The rise of Asian universities signals a changing global higher‑education landscape. While the United States and the United Kingdom still dominate the top spots, faster gains in Asia suggest that funding, strong teaching and research, and the weighting of ranking criteria are reshaping prestige.