According to the most recent rankings, the University of Hong Kong is no longer considered one of the top 50 universities in the world, for the first time since 2011.
HKU – which stood at number 43 last year – found itself out of the top 50 universities list compiled annually by Times Higher Education.
The UK-based publication ranks the 100 best universities in the world according to their reputation, as judged by more than 9,000 scholars from over 140 countries.
Currently, HKU is positioned somewhere between 51 and 60. We have no idea exactly where, because the publication doesn’t even bother assigning a specific number to institutions outside of the top 50.
We’re kind of dead to them now.
However, rankings editor Phil Baty was specific enough to say the decline could be related to concerns regarding free speech and academic freedom, as highlighted by Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Occupy movement last year.
Baty said that although the survey provided no information on why respondents ranked the universities the way they did, it is “reasonable to speculate” that the Occupy movement might have had something to do with it.
The only other university in Hong Kong that made the list is the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which fell from the 51-60 segment last year to 71-80 this year.
At 12, Japan’s University of Tokyo remains the top university in Asia, followed by the National University of Singapore and Tsinghua University, which stand at 24th and 26th respectively.
Photo: Trey Menefee via Flickr
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