2016年9月21日，泰晤士高等教育发布了其第13版世界大学排名。今年的扩展名单证明了全球高等教育是多么地具有竞争力。进入榜单前980所大学来自79个不同的国家。而值得注意的是，六年来“排名第一”首次有了新学校；在12年的历史中，在世界第一的位置上，美国首次输给了英国的牛津大学。
亚洲各高校在本次榜单上也斩获喜人。中国引领金砖四国，共有59所大学进入世界大学排名名单，其中包括香港的六所大学和澳门的一所大学。共有59所中国机构进入今年的世界一流大学名单，包括香港的6所和澳门的1所。其中9所进入了排名的前200名，而去年只有5所。北京大学为第29名，排名最前（去年为42名），而清华大学为35名，进入了前40（去年为并列47名）。香港中文大学达到了76名，首次进入前100，此外香港城市大学、中国科技大学、复旦大学和香港理工大学均进入了前200名。而在今年的排名中，中国共有14所新加入的大学。
泰晤士高等教育世界大学排名2016-2017 – 中国大学完整排名
RANK 2016–17 RANK 2015–16 Institution
29 42 Peking University
35 =47 Tsinghua University
=43 =44 University of Hong Kong
49 59 Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
76 =138 Chinese University of Hong Kong
119 201–250 City University of Hong Kong
=153 201–250 University of Science and Technology of China
155 201–250 Fudan University
=192 201–250 Hong Kong Polytechnic University
201-250 251–300 Nanjing University
201-250 301–350 Shanghai Jiao Tong University
201-250 251–300 Zhejiang University
351-400 351–400 Hong Kong Baptist University
351-400 401–500 University of Macau
401-500 501–600 Huazhong University of Science and Technology
401-500 501–600 Renmin University of China
401-500 351–400 Sun Yat-sen University
401-500 401–500 Wuhan University
401-500 401–500 Xiamen University
501-600 501–600 China Agricultural University
501-600 501–600 East China Normal University
501-600 401–500 East China University of Science and Technology
501-600 501–600 Harbin Institute of Technology
501-600 501–600 Soochow University
501-600 NR Southeast University
501-600 501–600 Tianjin University
501-600 501–600 Tongji University
501-600 501–600 Xi’an Jiaotong University
601-800 601–800 Beijing Institute of Technology
601-800 601–800 Capital Medical University
601-800 601–800 China University of Geosciences (Wuhan)
601-800 601–800 China University of Petroleum
601-800 601–800 Dalian University of Technology
601-800 601–800 Hunan University
601-800 601–800 Jilin University
601-800 NR Nanjing Agricultural University
601-800 NR Nanjing Medical University
601-800 NR Nanjing Normal University
601-800 NR Northeast Normal University
601-800 NR Northeastern University
601-800 601–800 Northwestern Polytechnical University
601-800 601–800 University of Science and Technology Beijing
601-800 601–800 Shantou University
601-800 601–800 Sichuan University
601-800 501–600 South China University of Technology
801+ NR Central South University
801+ NR China University of Mining and Technology
801+ 601–800 Chongqing University
801+ 601–800 University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
801+ NR Jiangsu University
801+ NR Jinan University
801+ NR Nanjing Tech University
801+ 601–800 Ocean University of China
801+ NR Shaanxi Normal University
801+ 601–800 Shanghai University
801+ NR Southwest Jiaotong University
801+ NR Wuhan University of Technology
801+ NR Xiangtan University
801+ 601–800 Xidian University
面对亚洲大学，尤其是中国高校在榜单中新一轮的崛起，泰晤士高等教育世界大学排名编辑Phil Baty说道：“中国大陆的掘起，部分归功于其学术声誉、研究影响力和吸引国际人才评分的提高，而香港优异的表现则主要得益于机构和研究收入的增加以及研究产出的提高。中国的出色表现只反映了亚洲在今年排名中广泛持续上升的一方面。亚洲表现最为优异的新加坡国立大学位列24名，这是其有史以来最高的排名。韩国机构的排名也有较大提升。
而谈到中国当前高等教育的发展以及未来的发展势头，Phil Baty认为中国已出台了强有力的政策驱动，并具备强大的资金后盾，正努力构建世界一流大学。从2000年的0.8%一路上升，中国现已将其GDP的2%投入到研发中，总计占到了世界研究界的19%以上（超过其他任何国家），而2008年时这一数字仅为10%。此外中国还占据了世界科学出版物的20.2%，2008年时仅为9.9%。
因此，Phil认为在接下来的几年里，越来越多的亚洲，尤其是中国顶尖大学将会飙升到世界前列。“近年来，亚洲作为‘下一个高等教育重地’的说法已成老生常谈，但今年的排名表明，亚洲的掘起是真实而持续的。总体上，来自24个亚洲国家的290所大学进了榜单，其中有19所进入前200，去年只有15所。在前100中，亚洲有两所新入选的学校，此外还有四所来自香港、韩国和中国大陆的机构进入了前200。印度位于东亚主要区域之外，但它的表现也鼓舞人心，其排名有所提高。该国在表中占据了31个位置，并且其领跑者印度理工学院正逐渐逼近前200，目前位于201-250区，这是它有史以来的最佳排名。”
泰晤士高等教育世界大学排名2016-17 – 完整的前200排名
Rank 2016-17 Rank 2015-16 Institution Country
1 2 University of Oxford United Kingdom
2 1 California Institute of Technology United States
3 3 Stanford University United States
4 4 University of Cambridge United Kingdom
5 5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States
6 6 Harvard University United States
7 7 Princeton University United States
8 8 Imperial College London United Kingdom
9 9 ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich Switzerland
=10 13 University of California, Berkeley United States
=10 10 University of Chicago United States
12 12 Yale University United States
13 17 University of Pennsylvania United States
14 16 University of California, Los Angeles United States
15 14 University College London United Kingdom
16 15 Columbia University United States
17 11 Johns Hopkins University United States
18 20 Duke University United States
19 18 Cornell University United States
20 25 Northwestern University United States
21 21 University of Michigan United States
22 19 University of Toronto Canada
23 22 Carnegie Mellon University United States
24 26 National University of Singapore Singapore
=25 23 London School of Economics and Political Science United Kingdom
=25 32 University of Washington United States
27 24 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom
28 28 Karolinska Institute Sweden
29 42 Peking University China
=30 31 École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland
=30 29 LMU Munich Germany
32 30 New York University United States
=33 41 Georgia Institute of Technology United States
=33 33 University of Melbourne Australia
35 =47 Tsinghua University China
=36 34 University of British Columbia Canada
=36 36 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign United States
=36 27 King’s College London United Kingdom
39 43 University of Tokyo Japan
40 35 KU Leuven Belgium
41 =39 University of California, San Diego United States
42 38 McGill University Canada
=43 37 Heidelberg University Germany
=43 =44 University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
45 50 University of Wisconsin-Madison United States
46 53 Technical University of Munich Germany
47 52 Australian National University Australia
48 =39 University of California, Santa Barbara United States
49 59 Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong
50 46 University of Texas at Austin United States
=51 51 Brown University United States
=51 =44 University of California, Davis United States
53 =65 University of Minnesota United States
54 55 Nanyang Technological University Singapore
55 =56 University of Manchester United Kingdom
56 63 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States
=57 49 Humboldt University of Berlin Germany
=57 =60 Washington University in St Louis United States
59 =65 Delft University of Technology Netherlands
=60 =60 University of Queensland Australia
=60 68 University of Southern California United States
=60 =56 University of Sydney Australia
63 58 University of Amsterdam Netherlands
64 64 Boston University United States
65 =47 Wageningen University and Research Center Netherlands
66 54 École Normale Supérieure France
67 117 University of Maryland, College Park United States
68 75 Pennsylvania State University United States
69 71 Erasmus University Rotterdam Netherlands
70 =113 Purdue University United States
71 69 University of Bristol United Kingdom
=72 =90 Ohio State University United States
=72 85 Seoul National University South Korea
74 73 Monash University Australia
75 72 Free University of Berlin Germany
76 =138 Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
77 67 Leiden University Netherlands
=78 =82 University of New South Wales Australia
=78 =110 RWTH Aachen University Germany
=80 74 University of Groningen Netherlands
=80 79 University of Pittsburgh United States
=82 =104 Dartmouth College United States
=82 =90 Emory University United States
=82 NR Technical University of Berlin Germany
=82 80 University of Warwick United Kingdom
86 62 Utrecht University Netherlands
87 =101 Rice University United States
88 =76 University of Glasgow United Kingdom
=89 148 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) South Korea
=89 78 University of Tübingen Germany
=91 =76 University of Helsinki Finland
=91 =88 Kyoto University Japan
93 81 Uppsala University Sweden
94 =88 Maastricht University Netherlands
95 84 University of Freiburg Germany
=96 70 Durham University United Kingdom
=96 =90 Lund University Sweden
=98 =106 Aarhus University Denmark
=98 =101 University of Basel Switzerland
=98 =106 University of California, Irvine United States
101 =99 Michigan State University United States
102 =106 University of Mannheim Germany
103 =113 University of Montreal Canada
=104 =94 Georgetown University United States
=104 116 Pohang University of Science and Technology South Korea
106 =104 University of Zurich Switzerland
107 137 University of Alberta Canada
108 87 Vanderbilt University United States
109 97 University of Sheffield United Kingdom
=110 =120 University of Bern Switzerland
=110 86 University of St Andrews United Kingdom
112 =99 University of Göttingen Germany
=113 =94 University of Bonn Germany
=113 =94 McMaster University Canada
=113 98 Queen Mary University of London United Kingdom
=116 =127 University of Colorado Boulder United States
=116 =101 École Polytechnique France
118 118 Ghent University Belgium
119 201–250 City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
120 =82 University of Copenhagen Denmark
=121 =113 Pierre and Marie Curie University France
=121 =125 Radboud University Nijmegen Netherlands
=121 =110 University of Southampton United Kingdom
=121 147 University of Virginia United States
125 109 University of Western Australia Australia
=126 =133 Case Western Reserve University United States
=126 93 University of Exeter United Kingdom
128 =167 Université Catholique de Louvain Belgium
129 =131 University of York United Kingdom
130 119 University of Birmingham United Kingdom
131 189 Arizona State University United States
132 135 University of Oslo Norway
133 =133 University of Leeds United Kingdom
134 =120 University of Florida United States
=135 =127 Tufts University United States
=135 192 Ulm University Germany
=137 =131 University of Geneva Switzerland
=137 130 Lancaster University United Kingdom
=137 112 Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa Italy
=137 153 Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) South Korea
141 =123 Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey United States
142 =149 University of Adelaide Australia
143 108 University of Notre Dame United States
=144 =138 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Germany
=144 136 Stockholm University Sweden
146 =144 University of California, Santa Cruz United States
147 143 University of Nottingham United Kingdom
148 =120 University of Cape Town South Africa
149 140 University of Sussex United Kingdom
150 201–250 Indiana University United States
=151 =144 University of Lausanne Switzerland
=151 =158 University of Rochester United States
=153 201–250 University of Science and Technology of China China
=153 =149 University of Twente Netherlands
155 201–250 Fudan University China
=156 163 University of Arizona United States
=156 154 VU University Amsterdam Netherlands
158 157 University of Liverpool United Kingdom
159 155 KTH Royal Institute of Technology Sweden
160 =123 University of Erlangen-Nuremberg Germany
=161 =125 University of Münster Germany
=161 142 University of Vienna Austria
163 146 Autonomous University of Barcelona Spain
164 =158 TU Dresden Germany
=165 =172 University of Auckland New Zealand
=165 =167 University of California, Riverside United States
=165 =149 University of East Anglia United Kingdom
=165 141 University of Massachusetts United States
169 =193 Texas A&M University United States
=170 156 University of Cologne Germany
=170 =180 University of Gothenburg Sweden
172 =167 University of Leicester United Kingdom
=173 129 Royal Holloway, University of London United Kingdom
=173 179 University of Waterloo Canada
175 =164 Pompeu Fabra University Spain
176 =167 Technical University of Denmark Denmark
177 =176 Eindhoven University of Technology Netherlands
178 =193 University of Luxembourg Luxembourg
179 188 Paris-Sud University France
=180 =185 University of Dundee United Kingdom
=180 NR University of Hamburg Germany
=182 =182 Cardiff University United Kingdom
=182 =161 University of Miami United States
=182 201–250 Northeastern University United States
=182 201–250 University of the Witwatersrand South Africa
=186 178 Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel
=186 =185 University of Würzburg Germany
=188 =172 University of Aberdeen United Kingdom
=188 =161 Lomonosov Moscow State University Russian Federation
=190 =196 Newcastle University United Kingdom
=190 =180 Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna Italy
=192 201–250 Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong
=192 =164 University of Reading United Kingdom
194 175 University of Konstanz Germany
=195 201–250 University of Calgary Canada
=195 =167 National Taiwan University Taiwan
197 201–250 University of Duisburg-Essen Germany
=198 =185 Brandeis University United States
=198 201–250 Tilburg University Netherlands
200 201–250 University of Illinois at Chicago United States