National Taiwan University (NTU) has jumped to 80th place in the latest world university rankings by the QS education network. The oldest university in the country, NTU climbed from 87th last year to 80th place this year.

NTU said its ranking jumped mainly because of sharply higher overall citation rates and citations per faculty. Six other Taiwanese universities were listed in the global top 400 rankings, with five rising on the list from last year.

The other Taiwanese universities on the top 400 list are National Tsing Hua University (192nd), National Chiao Tung University (238th), National Cheng Kung University (271st), National Yang Ming University (285th), Taipei Medical University (323rd), National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (396th).

National Central University placed somewhere between 401st and 450th, while National Sun Yat-sen University, National Taiwan Normal University and Chang Gung University were estimated at between 451st and 500th.

The rankings of Taiwanese universities were pushed up mainly by the increased citation rates of their research papers. Some of them also scored higher in the category of employer reputation, which accounts for 10 per cent of the total score, because they hired more foreign faculty and the quality of their education has improved, reports Focus Taiwan.