China’s universities have made strong progress to take the largest share of top 100 places in both the Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2015 and QS's University Rankings: Asia 2015.

Three new Chinese universities entered the top 100 of the THE's Asian university rankings, bringing the total to 21 and overtaking Japan to become the country with the most universities in this ranking. Peking University and Tsinghua University, the country's top institutions, each moved up one place to 4th and 5th respectively. The region's top three universities were the University of Tokyo, the National University of Singapore and the University of Hong Kong.

QS has also released its 2015 Asian university rankings, with China consolidating its lead by adding three new top 100 universities. Of the 25 Chinese institutions featured in the top 100, 16 have improved their position this year. However, as with the THE rankings, Chinese universities have not yet reached the very top spots. The highest ranked Chinese university was Peking University, up one place to 7th, while Tsinghua climbed three places to 11th. The top five universities in Asia according to QS are the National University of Singapore, the University of Hong Kong, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Nanyang Technical University (NTU) in Singapore, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Spokespeople from both organisations attributed China's gains to strong government investment. Phil Baty, editor of Times Higher Education Rankings, said that Chinese universities "are reaping the rewards of serious, sustained investment and internationalisation" and are a model for other Asian nations to follow, while QS’s head of research Ben Sowter attributed China's rise to an increase in research output which had been "spurred by the impressive and sustained level of public and private investment". Chinese universities have also seen a strong improvement in the number of times their research has been cited, although they still fall behind their international peers in terms of citations per paper.

Analysis by Liu Xiaoxiao, Education Services Manager and Kevin Prest, Senior Analyst:

Chinese universities' performance in ranking is improving year by year, and is strong evidence that the Chinese government's investment in research and internationalisation at its top universities really does pay off. This trend is likely to continue in years to come, as the development of "world-class universities" is one of the key priorities in the government's 2012-2020 education strategy. However, the number of top-ranked Chinese universities is still substantially below the level that would be expected from the country's population or total GDP, suggesting that there is still plenty of room for improvement.

Sources:
https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2015/re...
http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/asian-university-rank...
http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20150613065347252