JAPAN_University of Tokyo loses top spot in Asia

LONDON —

The University of Tokyo has lost its crown as Asia’s leading higher education institution after being overtaken by the National University of Singapore in a global ranking list released Wednesday.
The National University of Singapore took 26th place in this year’s Times Higher Education list of the world’s top 800 universities.
The University of Tokyo, which is regularly at the top of Asian institutions, came in at 43rd position, well behind last year’s 23rd rank. The Japanese university also fell below Peking University ranked 42nd.
The California Institute of Technology remained in the number one spot in the world, with the University of Oxford in second place and Stanford University
third.
The rankings, now in their 12th year and expanded to cover the world’s top 800 universities, measure each institution according to a series of factors including teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.
Phil Baty, who edits the rankings, blamed budget cuts on the University of Tokyo’s fall in the rankings but noted that Japan is still Asia’s number one nation for top universities and the third most-represented country overall, with 41 of its institutions making this year’s list.
“Due to ongoing austerity in the country as a result of its crippling level of public debt, its spending in research and development has dropped significantly in recent years, with the main research budget for 2015 falling 3.9 percent from the previous year to about $10 billion,” Baty said.
“The government has also cut management expenses grants, a basic subsidy to operate universities and research institutes. Although Japan has previously led Asia’s progress towards superpower status, it must now up its game and invest further in research to compete with its neighboring rivals.”
The only other Japanese institution in the top 200 was Kyoto University at joint 88th, falling from 59th in 2014.