THE announced World University Rankings

On Sept 2, The Times Higher Education announced World University Rankings 2022, which include more than 1,600 universities across 99 countries and territories.

China has two institutions in the top 20 for the first time: Peking University and Tsinghua University share 16th place, after rising seven and four places, respectively. This is also the highest ranking in Asian countries so far.

The University of Oxford tops the ranking for the sixth consecutive year, followed by Harvard, Caltech, Stanford, and MIT.

In addition, the Chinese mainland has also set a record of 97 Chinese mainland universities. 10 universities ranked among the top 200.

The Times Higher Education list, published each year since 2004, is among the world's most influential rankings of colleges and universities, which are judged based on 13 key performance indicators grouped into five thematic areas:

Teaching, which examines the reputation of the school's academic instruction as well as student-to-teacher ratios, the ratio of doctoral degrees to bachelor degrees awarded, the number of faculty who hold doctorates, and the income of academic staff.

Research, which analyzes the number of publications per staff member at an institution, the research income of the school, and the reputation of that research.

Citations, which examines the school's research influence.

Industry income, which measures knowledge transfer by quantifying the income generated by research partnerships with private industries.

International outlook, which weighs the percentage of international staff, students, and co-authorship to determine a school's ability to attract students, faculty, and staff from around the world.

According to the latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings, universities that published high-impact research on COVID-19 have soared up the league table, with China reaping the most rewards.

The institutions with the biggest jump in citation impact score in absolute terms are Capital Medical University, Wenzhou Medical University and Wuhan University, all of which are in Chinese mainland and saw a score increase of more than 30 points.

Jenny Lee, professor at the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona, said the rise in citation impact will steadily continue beyond the current pandemic, mostly because China is already the global leader in scientific publications.

"China also continues to collaborate globally, across fields, which also leads to higher citation impact," she said.