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Asian universities have collectively achieved a huge improvement in the 2015-16 Times Higher Education World University Rankings for physical sciences, released today.

More than half of Asia’s 15 universities in the top 100 for physical sciences are included for the first time this year.

These newly ranked institutions achieved an average position of 65, ranking on the whole significantly higher than the European, North American or Australian debutants in the 2016 table.

North American universities, including Caltech, Stanford and MIT, are still the best in the world for a physical sciences subject.

But the impressive result for Asia this year suggests that there are many opportunities to study maths, physics or chemistry at a world-leading institution in Singapore, China, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea or Taiwan.

Best universities in Asia

For the first time, two Asian universities feature in the top 30: the Peking University, China.

Although three Australian universities are among the best 100, University of Melbourne both slipped out of the top 30 this year.

The University of Queensland fell out of the top 100, to be replaced by University of New South Wales at position 96.

Swiss, German and French institutions also feature prominently in the physical sciences ranking; each country has at least five institutions among the top 100 and at least two institutions in the upper half of the ranking.

Margret Wintermantel, president of the German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD, said: “German universities and research institutions have a long tradition of being at the forefront of research – especially in the physical sciences. There has always been a strong consensus that advances in science and research are an important key to innovation.”