Hong Kong University of Science and Technology still remains in first place on a list of Asia's top universities this year for its strong performance across the board and superior rates of research publication.

According to QS Asian University Rankings 2012 released in late May, the National University of Singapore moves up from the third to the second spot, while University of Hong Kong drops to the third.

While this year's rankings feature the same top three as in 2011,  the results provide evidence that competition in the region is increasing year after year. As the West tightens its belt, economies in Asia continue to boom. The increased spending power of countries in the region means that universities now need to continue to improve just to stay in the same place.

This year's top ten is notable for featuring three fewer Japanese universities than in 2011, while China has become the best performer with four universities among the top 10, eight among the top 20, and 31 among the top 100.

The QS Asian University Rankings has been published annually since 2009 and ranks the region's best universities based on a wide range of criteria including research quality, teaching quality, graduate employability and internationalization.

  National Taiwan University

Fees Range (USD$)	Domestic	International
Undergraduate	2,000 - 4,000	4,000 - 6,000
Postgraduate	2,000 - 4,000	4,000 - 6,000

 Score:84.71 ;2011 rank:21; 2011 world rank:87;Country:China

NTU's institutional predecessor was Taihoku Imperial University, and was founded in 1928. Now the university has 11 colleges, with 54 departments and 103 graduate institutes, plus four university-level research centers: Population and Gender Studies Center, Center for Condensed Matter Sciences, Center for Biotechnology, and Bio-diversity Research Center. The total number of students, including those enrolled at the school of professional and continuing studies, has grown to over 33,000, including over 17,000 university students and 15,000 graduate students.

Link:http://www.ntu.edu.tw/engv4/