Chinese mainland has two institutions among the very best on the global reputation list. Hong Kong also has a world top 50 institution and two more that make the world top 100. It is a strong overall performance for China in this year’s World University Reputation ranking 2014.

Baty suggests the next major push needs to be towards further opening up the Chinese system to the world – true internationalization, which will allow the West to learn from the best in China as well as China to learn good practice from the West, can bring huge benefits and real success in rankings.

The following is the excerpt of People's Daily Online's written interview with Phil Baty after the World Reputation Ranking was released on March 6, 2014.

People's Daily Online: How do you see the universities in China in the Reputation ranking 2014?

Phil Baty: China’s mainland should be proud to have two universities among this important list of the 50 most prestigious universities in the world. It shows that when it comes to global reputation, China’s mainland has institutions among the very best. Indeed, Hong Kong also has a world top 50 institution and two more that make the world top 100, so it is a strong overall performance for China. Reputation and prestige are paramount in global higher education and research, as they help institutions to attract the best talent and drawn in investment and partnerships.

However, the position of China’s universities in the world has been relatively stable over the four years we have carried out this survey, and no mainland institutions other than Tsinghua and Peking have managed to break into the world top 100.

After all the investment and support for its leading universities, and the huge attention paid to Chinese scholarship in the world and the major increases in research output, one may have hoped to have seen more upward movement. So despite the strong showing, there is still some disappointment that they are not doing even better.

People's Daily Online: What's your suggestion to Chinese universities on future development?

Phil Baty: There are clearly still some elements holding Chinese universities back from the very top end of this prestigious list. Perhaps the next major push needs to be towards further opening up the Chinese system to the world – true internationalization, which will allow the West to learn from the best in China as well as China to learn good practice from the West, can bring huge benefits and real success in rankings.

A focus on creativity and free thinking inside universities will also help China to reach the next level, and ensure it is at the very forefront of new knowledge creation and pushing the boundaries of human understanding.

People's Daily Online: Compared with universities in other countries and regions in Asia, What are the advantages of China’s universities in general?

Phil Baty:China’s universities have benefited from huge government financial support and the reform process, and of course the two institutions in the top 50 benefit from being in one of the most important and exciting cities in the world – Beijing – which really does now look like the focal point for the whole world in terms of the economy and, increasingly, the knowledge economy. The role of the universities at the heart of this should stand them in very good stead for future progress and development. However, other Asian universities are also benefitting from strong government support, and some of them, notably in Singapore, are more advanced in internationalizing their footprint than Chinese institutions.

People's Daily Online: What are the major indicators to examine a university?

Phil Baty: In the case of the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings, the results are based on the world’s largest survey of academic opinion. This is because Times Higher Education considers that there is no one better to judge a university’s reputation than academics themselves.

The 2014 World Reputation Rankings are based on 10,536 responses from 133 countries to the survey distributed in March-May 2013.

The poll asks academics to nominate no more than 15 of the best institutions in their narrow field of expertise, based on their experience and knowledge, making it a rigorous global measure of academic prestige.

Note: To view the full rankings, please visit www.thewur.com