Rising and Falling in Asia-Pacific

One problem with most international rankings is that they tend to measure historical quality and are not much use for predicting what will happen in the near future. The Shanghai rankings' alumni and awards criteria allow Oxbridge and some German universities to live off intellectual capital generated decades ago. The surveys of the QS rankings inevitably favour big, old, wealthy universities with years of alumni and endowments behind them. It will take a long time for any rapidly developing school to score well on the eleven year criteria in the HEEACT rankings.

I have compiled a list of the percentage change in the number of publications in ISI databases of universities in the Asia Pacific region between 2009 and 2010. The ranking includes all the universities listed in the 2009 Shanghai ARWU from the Asia Pacific region.

King Saud University is at the top of the table, almost doubling its output of papers between 2009 and 2010. Six out of the top 10 are from Greater China. Some major Japanese universities seem to be shrinking and Israel and Australia do not seem to be doing very well.

Some caveats. This is basically a measure of quantity not quality of research. Also, the results may reflect organisational changes such as the acquisition or loss of a medical school. The data were collected over several weeks, during which there could be additions to the databases so the scores were rounded out to whole numbers.

Percentage change in publications in the ISI Databases, 2009-2010

1.   King Saud University, Saudi Arabia,  95
2.   Shandong University, China,  16
3.   National Yang Ming University, Taiwan  15
4.   Tainjin University, China,  13
5.    Nanyang Technological University, Singapore,  13
6.    Sun Yat Sen University, China,   11
7.    Fudan University, China,  10
8.    Victoria University Wellington, New Zealand 9
9.    Niigata University,  Japan, 9
10.  Gunma University, Japan, 9
11.  Nihon University, Japan, 9
12.  University of Tasmania,  Australia, 9
13.  Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan,  8
14.  Jilin University, China, 8
15.  Chang Gung University, Taiwan, 7
16.  Chinese University of Hong Kong, 7
17.  Massey University of New Zealand, 7
18.  University of Auckland, New Zealand, 6
19.  Deakin University, Australia,  6
20.  La Trobe University, Australia, 6
21.  Seoul National University, Korea, 6
22.  Nanjing University, China,  6
23.  Nankai University, Japan, 6
24   University of Canterbury, New Zealand, 6
25.  Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, 6
26.  Weizman Institute of Science, Israel, 6
27.  Kumamoto University, Japan, 6
28.  Osaka Prefecture University, Japan, 5
29.  Yonsei University, Korea, 4
30.  Peking University, China, 4
31.  University of Haifa, Israel, 4
32.  Lanzhou University, China, 3
33.  James Cook University, Australia, 3
34.  Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 3
35.  University of Hong Kong, 3
36.  University of Queensland, Australia, 3
37.  China Agricultural University, 3
38.  Curtin University of Technology, Australia, 3
39.  University of Otago, New Zealand, 3
40.  Kyungpook National University, Korea, 3
41.  Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 2
42.  Sichuan University, China, 3 
43.  Korea University, 2
44.   University of Adelaide, Australia, 2
45.   Dalian University of Technology, China, 2
46.   Macquarie University, Australia, 2
47.   Sunkyunkwan University, Korea,  2
48.   Pusan National University, Korea, 1
49.   Flinders University, Australia, 1
50.   Shanghai Jiao Tung University, China, 1
51.   University of New South Wales, Australia, 1
52.   National Taiwan University, 1
53.   Osaka City University, Japan, 1
54.   Monash University, Astralia, 0
55.   Gifu University, Japan, 0
56.   Tsinghua University, China, -1
57.  Hiroshima University, Japan, -1
58.  Zhejiang University, China, -1
59.  Pohang University of Science and Technology, Korea, -1
60.  Bar Ilan University, Israel, -1
61.  National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, -1
62.  Kobe University, Japan,-1
63.  University of Tehran, Iran, -1
64.  University of Western Australia, -2
65.  University of Western Sydney, Australia,  -2
66.  National Tsinghua University, Taiwan, -2
67.  National University of Singapore, -2
68.  Harbin Institute of Technology, China,  -2
69.  Kanazawa  University, Japan, -3
70.  City University of Hong Kong, -3
71.  University of Tokushima, Japan,  -4
72.  University of Newcastle, Australia  -4
73.  University of Melbourne, Australia.  -4
74.  Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel,  -4
75.  Indian Institute of Science,  - 4
76.  Osaka University, Japan, -4
77.  Kyushu Uniersity, Japan,  -4
78.  University of Wollongong, Australia,  -4
79.  Hokkaido University,  Japan, -5
80.  Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China,  -5
81.  University of Tsukuba, Japan,  -5
82.  University of Tokyo, Japan,  -5
83.  Yamaguchi University, Japan, -5
84.  Hanyang University, Korea,  -6
85.  Hong Kong university of Science and Technlogy,  -6
86.  Technion - Israel Institute of Technology,   -6
87.   Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel,  -6
88.   Nagasaki  University,  Japan,  -6
89.   Kyoto University, Japan,  -6
90.   Chiba University, Japan,  -6
91.   Australian National University, -6
92.   Kagoshima University, Japan, -7
93.   Tel Aviv University, Israel.   -7
94.   Nagoya University, Japan, -7
95.   National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, -8
97.    Keio University, Japan, -8
98.    Okayama University, Japan, -8
99.    National Central University, Taiwan, -9
100.  Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan,-9
101.  Ehime University, Japan,  -10
102.  Tohoku University, Japan, -10
103.  Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan,  -10
104.  Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur,  -13