The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has retained first place in the QS World University Rankings: Asia 2027, while the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have fallen to joint sixth and eighth respectively.
Published on 3 November 2026 by higher education analytics company QS Quacquarelli Symonds, the latest rankings cover 1,722 universities across 26 education systems, including 195 new entrants.
HKU has now topped the regional rankings for two consecutive years.
The results highlight changing positions among Asia’s leading institutions, although an overall university ranking does not necessarily indicate which degree programme is most suitable for an individual student.
Hong Kong Places Five Universities in the Top 10
Hong Kong has five universities in the top 10, more than any other education system in the latest edition.
Peking University remains second, while Tsinghua University has climbed six places to third. City University of Hong Kong has risen to fourth and The Chinese University of Hong Kong to fifth.
The top 10 institutions remain unchanged from 2026, although eight have moved positions. Hong Kong also recorded a strong overall performance, with 73 per cent of its ranked universities improving their positions.
Elsewhere, Universiti Malaya ranks 17th, the University of Tokyo 27th, Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University 52nd and Indonesia’s Gadjah Mada University 53rd.
Mainland China has the largest representation in the rankings, with 448 universities, followed by India with 325 and Japan with 153.
Singapore Slips Despite Strong Indicator Scores
Singapore’s NUS and NTU were both ranked joint third in the 2026 edition. NUS now shares sixth place with Fudan University, while NTU has fallen five places to eighth.
However, their lower overall positions do not mean that Singapore’s universities have declined across every measure.
QS reports that Singapore achieved the highest average scores across seven indicators among education systems with at least five ranked universities. These include employer reputation, citations per paper and international student ratio.
The QS Asia rankings methodology uses 11 indicators, with academic reputation accounting for 30 per cent of the overall score and employer reputation contributing another 20 per cent.
Because reputation surveys account for half of the total weighting, the rankings should not be treated as a direct assessment of teaching quality across individual degree programmes.
For families and prospective students, university rankings can provide a starting point for further research. Course content, entry requirements, accreditation, tuition fees, scholarships and accommodation costs remain important considerations when comparing institutions.
Families can explore the complete results and compare universities using QS’s interactive rankings table.
