London: QS Quacquarelli Symonds, global higher education analysts, have recently released their annual, most-extensive guide to the performance of over 1000 universities across four emerging regions. The 2018 edition of the QS World University Rankings by Region, featuring comparative data on universities in Asia, Latin America, the Arab Region, and Emerging Europe and Central Asia, sees new regional leaders in three of the four rankings.

Asia Region: Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University takes the regional number-one spot from perennial leader National University of Singapore (2^nd). Hong Kong University of Science and Technology ranks 3^rd. Tsinghua University (5^th) is China’s leading institution. China’s Fudan University is the only new entrant into the top 10 this year; it has risen from 11^th to 7^th.

Seven of India’s IITs and IISCs see decline in rank. Malaysian universities make particularly noteworthy improvements this year, with three of its universities breaking into the top 50. Japan’s top university is again the University of Tokyo (13^th), but competition is fierce across the nation: Japanese institutions also rank 14^th, 15^th, and 17^th.

Latin America: Key Highlights

• Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile take the number-one spot from Brazil’s Universidade de São Paulo (3^rd).
• USP is no longer Brazil’s leading university: it has been usurped by Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp);
• Mexico has two universities in the top five for the first time: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (4^th is joined by Tecnológico de Monterrey (5^th);
• Colombia’s top university is Universidad de Los Andes Colombia, which remains 8^th;
• Argentina’s highest-ranked university, the Universidad de Buenos Aires, rises from 11^th to 9^th;
• The top 50 features universities from Brazil (16), Chile (8), Mexico (7), Argentina (6), Colombia (5), Costa Rica and Venezuela (2); and Peru, Puerto Rico, and Uruguay (1).

Emerging Europe and Central Asia: Key Highlights

• This ranking is the only one of the four to see its leader unchanged: Lomososov Moscow State University of Russia remains indomitable;
• Estonia’s University of Tartu breaks into the top three, rising from 5^th to 3^rd;
• Turkey has two universities in the top 10 for the first time: Bogaziçi Üniversitesi (7^th) and Middle East Technical University (9^th);
• The Czech Republic also has two top-10 universities: Charles University (5^th) and Czech Technical University in Prague (8^th).

Arab Region: Key Highlights

• King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) lose its top spot for the first time ever. It is replaced by Lebanon’s American University of Beirut;
• Saudi Arabia is still home to three of the region’s top four universities. KFUPM remains 2^nd; it is followed by King Saud University (3^rd) and King Abdul Aziz University (4^th);
• There is one new entrant into the top ten: Oman’s Sultan Qaboos University (now 10^th);
• Saudi Arabia is the most-represented nation in the rankings, with 21 universities among the top 100;
• It is followed by Egypt and Jordan (13 universities each), the United Arab Emirates (12 universities), Iraq (11 universities), and Lebanon (8 universities);
• United Arab Emirates University enters the top five, rising from 6^th to 5^th.