National Taiwan University has emerged as the top institution among those in the mainland, Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong, in a survey by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Institute of Higher Education. Tsinghua University came second, followed by Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The study was part of a two-year project to rank 500 universities worldwide. Harvard University topped the survey.

National Taiwan University ranked 190th worldwide, while Tsinghua was 248th and HKUST 266th, ahead of the University of Hong Kong, which was 296th. City University was in 332nd place, above Chinese University of Hong Kong, which was 335th.

The poll was based on institutions' research output, primarily in science journals.