Times Higher Education dropped its highly coveted World University Rankings last week, marking the fifth year in a row that universities in the United States have fallen out of the top 100.
The ranking system assesses universities based on their teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and international outlook.
The number of American universities on the list dropped from 43 to 34 between 2018 and 2023, while the number of Chinese universities included rose from 2 to 7.
“The data is very clear: We are seeing a real shift in the balance of power in the global knowledge economy, away from the traditionally dominant western world,” Phil Baty, chief knowledge officer of the Times Higher Education and rankings editor, said in a statement coinciding with the release of the report.
Baty later noted in his report that while the United States and the United Kingdom remain dominant in the top 100 standings overall, their “relative power is waning.”
He explained, “Mainland China leads a strengthening in East Asia, taking more and more of the top 200 places, and the Middle East is seeing a real renaissance in higher education.”
The shift could likely be caused by a drop in federal funds allocated to education by the United States, which has recently fallen to a 70-year-low. On the other hand, China has steadily increased its education spending by an average of 10.6% annually from 2010 to 2019.
Furthermore, while China has seen massive growth in the number of international students choosing to study at its universities, which has quickly climbed to more than half a million students each year, the United States has seen a decline.
One reason may be the higher tuition fees in the United States compared to other countries. Still, the United States maintains seven top 10 universities on the most current rankings.
Oxford University, the world’s leading research university, took the number one spot for the seventh year in a row, while China’s Tsinghua University and Peking University ranked 16 and 17, respectively.
These Chinese universities were ranked below thirty in 2018.
A key reason cited for the rapid growth in the prestige of China’s universities was their advanced COVID-19 research and the number of times their academic and scientific papers have been cited.
In the 2021 ranking, Caroline Wagner, chair of international affairs at Ohio State University, said, “The first three or four most important articles that came out on Covid were all from China.”
She expects a steady rise in the number of China-based citations to continue beyond the current pandemic, as China is currently a global leader in scientific publications.