London, 12^th July 2017: Though Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and Harvard University remain world-leaders, new research suggests future challengers are likely to come from a group of institutions in the Asia-Pacific region. QS Top 50 Under 50 Ranking has been released yesterday, where Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia all see gains.

The 2018 QS Top 50 Under 50 Ranking, enumerating the world’s top 50 universities founded before 1967, sees seven of the top ten universities come from Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Australia. Nanyang Technological University is again the world’s best young university.

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology ranks 2^nd, while Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology is 3^rd. The six leading universities can all be found in either Singapore, Hong Kong, or South Korea.

The upper echelon of the list is dominated by STEM-focused research-intensive institutions, who make up six of the top 10. For the first time, all six universities inhabit the top 100 of the overall QS World University Rankings, released last month;

Europe’s top young university is Finland’s Aalto University, which places 7^th. The United Kingdom’s only top young university is Oxford Brookes, which drops to 41^st. A number of UK institutions founded in 1966 ceased to be eligible for inclusion this year.

Australia is the most-represented nation, with 9 of the world’s top 50 young universities. Spain follows with six.

Malaysian higher education makes strides forward: it now has four institutions in the top 25, and all four have risen this year.

Ben Sowter, Research Director at QS, said: “This year, we don’t only see that Asia-Pacific universities retain their pre-eminence. We also observe them make considerable headway on their European and North American counterparts, with all of the top six experiencing rises in the overall QS World University Rankings. Similarly, Malaysian higher education has become increasingly competitive. These rises are a testament to the growing renown of these young, STEM-focused, sensibly strategic, ambitious universities – and continue to bring the continent’s excellence into ever-sharper relief.”

India has no universities in the top 50. However, QS also rank the next 100 universities under 50 years of age, in the complimentary ‘Next 100 Under 50’ table. Here, India has three universities ranked. These are Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (71-80 band); and the University of Hyderabad and Anna University (both in the 91-100 category).