The Education University of Hong Kong is to be commended for attaining the 195th spot for its first appearance in the list, while the other five also edged up in the newly released 2026 World University Ranking by the renowned British agency. It is also the first time that all eight public universities have been listed in the rankings.
The University of Hong Kong rose from 35th to 33rd place, the highest among all the local institutions, while the Chinese University of Hong Kong rose three places to 41st. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology registered the biggest jump, moving from 66th to 58th. City University moved from 78th to 75th and Polytechnic University jumped one place to 83rd. Baptist University moved into the top 250 for the first time, while the newly ranked Lingnan University was placed in the band of 301 to 350, out of 2,191 institutions from 115 countries and territories.
University rankings vary across agencies. The latest one took into account 18 indicators covering teaching, research environment, research quality, industry and international outlook. The ranking was built on an analysis of about 19 million research papers. The city’s improvements were driven by teaching reputation, doctorate-to-bachelor’s ratios and staff-to-student ratios.
“This suggests that the universities are becoming more research-intensive and are investing in academic staff and doctoral studies,” the agency said.
