University of Tokyo places 39th in world rankings; China’s Tsinghua at 16th

By Keita Ikeda / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

16:04 JST, October 13, 2022

LONDON — The University of Tokyo was 39th and Kyoto University was 68th in the World University Rankings 2023 released Wednesday by the British education magazine Times Higher Education (THE).

They were the only Japanese universities ranked within the top 100, but both saw their position drop from the previous year. The University of Tokyo was 35th on the 2022 list and Kyoto University was 61st.

The University of Oxford was No. 1 for the seventh consecutive year, and Harvard University came second. U.S. and British schools occupied all the top 10 spots, with seven going to American schools.

In Asia, China’s Tsinghua University stayed at 16th, the same as the previous year, making it the highest-ranked in the region.

THE ranked 1,799 schools in 104 countries and regions based on factors such as the educational environment and the number of citations in research papers.

A total of 34 U.S. schools made the top 100, down nine from five years ago, while the number of Chinese schools increased by five over the same period, bringing China’s total to seven.

More universities are moving up the rankings in regions other than the United States and the United Kingdom, and according to THE, the power of American and British universities has declined proportionally.